Lufthansa opens T3, ends CityLine, charges
- Fraport opened Frankfurt Airport’s Terminal 3 on April 22, with regular operations starting April 23, while Lufthansa separately moved to pull Lufthansa CityLine’s 27 aircraft from service effective April 18. - Lufthansa Group also unveiled a new short-haul Economy Basic fare from April 28 for travel starting May 19, selling selected European tickets with only a personal item unless passengers pay extra for cabin bags. - The three moves land within 10 days of each other as Lufthansa trims unprofitable flying and reshapes feeder traffic around Frankfurt and Munich. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com)
Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3 is now open, just as Lufthansa is cutting CityLine and adding a bare-bones short-haul fare. (fraport.com) (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com 1) (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com 2) Fraport formally inaugurated Terminal 3 on April 22, 2026, and said regular operations began April 23. The new terminal, in the airport’s south, has gates G, H and J and capacity for about 19 million passengers a year. (fraport.com) (frankfurt-airport.com) Fraport said 57 airlines are relocating to Terminal 3 in four waves running from April 23 to June 9. Frankfurt Airport said airlines are moving out of Terminal 2 in stages and told passengers to check terminals before travel because assignments can change at short notice. (fraport.com) (frankfurt-airport.com) Lufthansa’s bigger operational change came on April 16, when the group said Lufthansa CityLine’s 27 operating aircraft would be removed from the schedule starting April 18. The company said the Canadair CRJ fleet was nearing the end of its technical life and had comparatively high operating costs. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com) That does not mean Lufthansa is abandoning regional feed at Frankfurt. Lufthansa City Airlines, the newer unit inside the group, opened its Frankfurt base on February 9 and said it plans to grow its local fleet to seven Airbus A320neo aircraft by September 2026. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com) From Frankfurt, Lufthansa City Airlines started with Manchester and added Berlin, Valencia, Düsseldorf and Málaga, with London Heathrow, Stockholm, Bilbao, Hamburg, Helsinki, Ibiza, Marseille and Bucharest slated for summer 2026. Lufthansa said City Airlines carried about 2 million passengers on nearly 16,000 flights in 2025. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com) The baggage change is more limited than a systemwide carry-on fee, but it is real. Lufthansa Group said on April 23 that a new Economy Basic fare will go on sale from April 28 for travel starting May 19 on selected European routes, and it includes only one personal item. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com) (business.lufthansagroup.com) Passengers who buy Economy Basic can add a carry-on bag of up to 8 kilograms for a fee, along with checked baggage or seat selection. Lufthansa’s existing Economy Light fare still includes one carry-on bag and one personal item. (business.lufthansagroup.com) Lufthansa is framing all three shifts as part of a wider cost and network reset. On April 21, the group said summer capacity across its six hubs would fall by less than 1 percent in available seat kilometers after cutting unprofitable routes in Frankfurt and Munich while adding capacity elsewhere. (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com 1) (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com 2) Put together, the picture is a new Frankfurt terminal, a retired regional subsidiary and a new fare that charges extra for overhead-bin space on some routes. For Lufthansa passengers, the immediate practical changes are simple: check your terminal, check your operating carrier and check what your ticket now includes. (frankfurt-airport.com) (newsroom.lufthansagroup.com)
