Frankfurt Airport Reviews 

Horrendous, anxiety-inducing and disorganised airport with hostile and rude airport personnel who misunderstood their job scope and thought they were employed as airport discipline masters. Don’t expect them to assist you, especially when you are rushing for a connecting flight. They were only trained to shrug their shoulders, scowl at you and tell you there is ‘nothing I can do’. Passengers who dared to approach them were either shouted at or dismissed. Absolutely disgusted with their attitudes. You have been warned to avoid this airport at all costs, unless you have a masochistic wish to get scolded or miss your flights.

This airport seems unusually disorganized and ill-equipped to handle the passengers arriving and departing. We encountered no less than four extremely rude employees, and the international arrival process was the worst I’ve ever experienced. Needless to say we missed our connection because we waited over 2 hours in the border patrol lines. The attitude of the employees just added to the displeasure. I hope I never have to pass through this airport again.

Please avoid this airport if you can. If you must travel here, be aware of the following:

1. The majority of the staff are rude and lazy and WILL NOT HELP YOU. Seriously, you'd have an easier time trying to boil water using a chocolate kettle than you will getting any help from most of the staff. THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU OR YOUR FEELINGS.

2. If you are connecting to another flight through here and you don't have a choice to fly through another airport; ensure that you have at least 4+ hours (but hopefully more) because when Immigration staff aren't shouting at you, interrogating you, or treating you like you've defecated on the floor in front of everyone, then their isn't enough of them to actually process passengers quickly enough. Seriously, I was departing through the B30+ gates, there are sardine tins that have more room, breathing space and comfort than the immigration queues.

3. Immigration (again) - I cannot stress this enough, do NOT take your time at this airport, even if you've arrived with hours to spare, the immigration areas are poorly designed, with terrible signage and no-one to help people to find out what queue they should be in, which of course you can't really tell what queue you are in, UNTIL you get close to the front of the queue, if you're in the wrong nationality queue, you're going to the back of the queue in the queue you were supposed to be in. (Note People DO skip the queue here and the security staff do NOTHING about it; so get to Frankfurt Airport HOURS before you flight, get through check-in/bag drop-off, security, Immigration and get to your gate. Then and only then can you take a breather. Seriously, this airport IS stressful.)

4. If you have disabilities, please avoid this airport, I nearly had a mental breakdown when departing Frankfurt for Edinburgh. The staff are supposed to recognise people with Sunflower lanyards to show they have invisible disabilities (I have ADHD), and if it weren't for my family being with me to support me, I probably would have had a break down due to how rude and chaotic this airport is. If you require a wheelchair, then I'm sorry, because (a) a lot of other complaints about Frankfurt Airport shows that they either (a) don't provide wheelchairs, even if they were booked in advance and/or (b) even when they were used, some genius decided to organise the immigration area - where there are massive queues - so that people accessing one area of the B Gates requires people to WALK THROUGH a large crowd to get to it, of course if you require a wheelchair, there's no way you can get through that as it's too crowded and you need staff at Frankfurt Airport to get you through those areas and given how rude and useless they are, you're going to have an incredibly bad time, and I'm so sorry for all disabled people who have to use Frankfurt Airport.

(Note, the next part relates to a bad experience at an airport in 2006, but there is a reason for this story, don't worry it is related to Frankfurt Airport).

I've been to many airports around the world, including Colombo International Airport in Sri Lanka in 2006 where a civil war was still taking place. I was screamed at by the immigration officer simply for wanting to transit for a few hours - I had a twelve hour layover until my next flight - and the officer slammed his stamp so violently on my passport that I could have sworn the desk beneath my passport had the imprint of the stamp embossed on the METAL desk.

On the way back from Malaysia a couple of months later, I had to pass through Colombo Airport again, and on THIS occasion, I had:

(A) My bag grabbed off me by security and they just dumped the ENTIRE contents of my bag onto a desk in front of everyone with zero warning.

(B) I was then asked for my passport by security, they looked at my passport and asked if I had any other ID, which was rather confusing as a passport is the defining be all and end all of IDs for travelling with. Thankfully he looked at me and just shrugged and let me through so I could pack my bag with the contents that had been unceremoniously dumped on a desk in front of any one. Clearly they didn't find anything - Malaysia has STRICT drug trafficking laws - so I wasn't travelling with anything illegal when I left Malaysia beforehand.

Anyway, you may ask, what was the point of that little story? The point is that while I had a horrible time at Sri Lanka in 2006 (again a civil war was still running in Sri Lanka at that time), that experience was damn near pleasurable compared to my experiences at Frankfurt Airport in 2026. Seriously, that's how bad Frankfurt Airport is, and it's not hyperbole, check out the other reviews.

AVOID THIS AIRPORT AT ALL COSTS.

Very Disappointing Experience

Very Disappointing Experience

My experience at Frankfurt Airport was extremely disappointing. There is no dedicated priority lane for families traveling with children, which makes the security process unnecessarily difficult and stressful.

Unfortunately, the attitude of some airport personnel also left a lot to be desired. Instead of being helpful and welcoming, they came across as impatient and unfriendly.

The airport itself is also confusing, with unclear directions and gates that can be difficult to find, especially when traveling with children and carrying luggage.

Overall, Frankfurt Airport could do much more to make the experience easier and more comfortable for families. I hope they improve both the signage and the way passengers, particularly families with children, are treated.

Why does it always takes so long with the luggage?
Terrible waiting again.
A coffee bar would be nice....

We passed through this airport twice on a recent 3 week European vacation. Both times were a disaster. We are fairly experienced European travelers, having passed through at least 10 major international airports in Europe in the last few years, many more than once. While the distances necessary to walk to connections are excessive, the signage is decent, so the airport is not extremely difficult to navigate. That being said, there were virtually zero golf carts assisting people in getting to their gates on time. The big problems we had were with Passport Control and Security. The lines were very long, as were the wait times. During both visits at Passport Control there were at least 100 passengers waiting, with sometimes only one officer doing the checks, and at most only four. The organizational flow was also ridiculous. We were forced to wait with dozens of fellow passengers to scan our passports, and then EVERY passenger with a US passport had to go into another line for a separate check. Other airports simply have a separate sign, and a line for US passports. But at Frankfurt, they make you wait twice. The delays at Passport were so long that it caused us to miss our flight on the outbound leg. Then to add insult to injury, Lufthansa weighed our airline approved carry-ons, found them to be a pound or two over their own specs and assessed us $70 in excess baggage fees. Yes, they may technically be within their rights, but we have NEVER had a carry-on weighed by any airline at any airport. Security was also ridiculous and excessive, especially on our return flight. My wife and I each had a legal sized carry-on and a personal bag. All four of those went into a separate line for additional screening. While we waited for them to be checked, several employees did nothing but talk to each other for minutes on end while our bags just sat there. When they did finally check our bags they went to ridiculous lengths, "wanding" each and every item, even though all of the bags had already been X-rayed. This is after having already gone through very tight security on the first leg of our flight leaving from Vienna. Passport Control was also done in Vienna, but was zealously and inefficiently repeated in Frankfurt. As they are both Schengen and EU countries, is this really necessary? On our return flight, we had a 3 hour and 20 minute layover in Frankfurt, which we assumed would be plenty of time. As it was, the Security and Passport Control waits were so lengthy that we arrived to our gate only minutes before boarding. Then, just before boarding, after having our Passports checked at least 3 times at the same airport, we were pulled out of line for an additional "document check". We were so stressed and so poorly treated by the uncaring and inefficient staff that we will never fly through Frankfurt again.

Terrible airport to transit through - at border control only one border kiosk open for all international travellers needing to exit the Schengen zone - how this airport considers itself an international hub beggars belief…

If satan curated an airport, it would be this. There is nothing redeeming about it whatsoever. Long queues. Most people end up missing their connecting flights - even when sprinting across terminals /gates (which are miles apart). The poor staff look burnt out from and I quote “this happening every day”. Because of this, you are typically met with eye rolls and sighs exclaiming “We can’t help. This is a police / border control issue”. Consequently, if your flight is missed there will be no reimbursement because it’s a “police issue”. It is worth every penny to never come here mid-connection.

The airport staff at terminal 3 did not have to be rude, but they wanted to. The airport has a sign out of the gates in Terminal 3 saying "connecting flights", then when I followed those signs to the connecting desk, nobody was there. I went to ask the staff at gate J2 opposite, the woman pointed her finger at me and said "Not yet, not yet, Air Serbia? Sit down, we don't have time", then rolled her eyes. Her colleagues laughed and repeated the same things. Condescending and unprofessional. Took me a while to then find out that you have to go straight to your next flight's gate for the boarding pass, even though their signs point you to the connecting flights desk. Absolutely ridiculous and unnecessarily disgusting behaviour.

Frankfurt is one of the most iconic airports in Europe apart from being the busiest, and sadly seems to be stuck in a WWII time-warp as far as basic amenities, modern conveniences and simple courtesies are concerned.

I changed planes at Frankfurt while traveling from LA to Bangalore and two things immediately stood out. A good number of the toilets are so small and so difficult to navigate that if 2 people are in, there's no room to open the door for a third person. This also leads to longer wait times, queues, and of course general irritation for the tired traveler.

Secondly, neither the airport staff nor the airline staff seem to have any sense of basic customer service sense and decorum. First of all, English is still a challenge at such an international airport. Secondly, I was denied access to a particular concourse which had a restroom right after the counter though it was not a security controlled counter because that concourse was meant for only planes departing to the US, not for passengers who had just come in bleary eyed FROM the US. And the lady who did this was downright condescending, bordering on the rude, and directing me on my way back. This was at gate Z58 FYI.

Though the US has its own set of problems, coming from the US where customer service is given priority to this day and the tone and tenor of the airport staff is one of genuinely wanting to help, it's jarring to land in such a large and central European airport and to experience such elementary challenges. Frankfurt, like Lufthansa, mirrors the decline of what used to be a great airport, and a great airline.

Sadly, the prevailing sentiment is that most passengers traveling through Europe and Frankfurt only do so because of the incredibly stupid war happening in the Gulf. I hope that the Frankfurt airport can get its act together and be a more traveler friendly , polite and courteous airport. Auf Weidersehen.

This security team were the rudest, most disorganised people I have ever come across. The blonde Karen running scanner duty with her hair scraped back into a ponytail is in desperate need of a crash course in basic human politeness, she looked up and down at my body in a strange manner and proceeded to scream at me to button up one singular button my shirt 🤣 Also, the place was totally dead, yet they forced us into a ghost-town queue that took ten full minutes just to process one single soul. By the time I reached the front, I honestly expected a full gynaecological MOT instead of a bag check. Then, right as we arrived, they yelled at us to walk all the way back to where we started. To top it all off, a bottle of water costs 7 euros. At least the terminal layout is decent for plane watching and feels a bit better than a dentist waiting room.

Passport control took 2 hours, as a result I missed my connecting flight. Extremely long walks to get to gates(kilometers). Personal is not very helpful. The worst airport I saw in my life

Too long walks. Nearest smoking booth wad 20min walk from my gate because they figured lets close the one at z54 and im at z66 thus have to go all the way to gate z11.

The organization of passport control was a complete failure. There was no coordination whatsoever, staff failed to manage the flow of passengers, and the resulting chaos could have had serious consequences, including passengers missing their connecting flights.

They started touching me at the baggage checking for a toothbrush in my pockets, felt like sexual harassment. Never seen something like that, I had the same toothbrush in other 2 airports in the same pocket...

I was accompanied by Annan Jemima on flight number DE4323. She was extremely helpful, patient and kind. She guided me through the airport and even took the bus with me all the way to my plane.

This is the worst airport experience ever & I will never go through Frankfurt Airport again. Frankfurt was connection on flight to Vienna. Landed - Bus transport to terminal. Absolute chaos at Border control-out of approximately 7 Machines only 1 was working for hundreds upon hundreds of non-EU people coming in all at once to register with finger prints. No direction-airport staff was the most unhelpful I have ever encountered-hours wait. We / as well as everyone else missed connecting flight- only to have to purchase entirely new airfare tickets to Vienna. The worst part; the airport staff could care less. They are not there to assist you & make that very clear. It was obvious to us that they really do not want you in the Frankfurt airport.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good experience landing in that airport is huge and that lady that check my bag was so rude. Made m drink my whole water bottle when I just get out of the plane I need to go to the bathroom..

FRA worst ever airport experience of my lifetime. Ive travelled 59 years, my extended family is all in europe, including both sets of grandparents. Sometimes you understand disorder, when it is weather related or pilots on strike etc. But FRA is Chaos of empty mazes, crowds, and unhelpful people. Ive had better experiences in 3rd world countries. Immigration took 2 hours, and 20 minutes with just the agent and my family of 5. Huge crowds and lines, and unhelpful mazes. The gate for our direct flight to SFO was tiny, could only seat maybe 100 people? We were all crowded into hallways. Took bus and stood on tarmac in 95 degree heat, no line control or civility in Germany, just a big scramble off the bus to climb the stairs to the plane. I will stick with AMS, Munich or Zurich next time. The only thing i like about FRA is the easy drive in and out of airport, and access to trains. We met a expat from Frankfurt visiting her family and she said "it is the worst airport in the world, everytime I come, my experience is different and unpredictable". For me it is surreal because Germany has such a culture of organization, the FRA just does not feel German, and yet it is?

Last decades the airport changed from worse to terrible. Rude staff, non-operative escalators, not organized boarding procedures. Many flights start from field position, requiring bus drive and climb with hand luggage multiple stairs. Not acceptable at all for hub claiming to be central in Europe