Frankfurt winter timetable 2017/2018: Several new destinations added to winter schedule

Increase in routes and seat capacity

Frankfurt Airport (FRA)’s new winter schedule will take effect when daylight saving time ends on October 28. In winter 2017/2018, 89 airlines will be offering passenger flights to 262 destinations in 100 countries around the world. Frankfurt, therefore, remains Germany’s most important international air traffic hub with the most intercontinental destinations.

The number of flights offered in this winter period is increasing by 8.1 percent year-on-year to 4,060 passenger flight departures per week. 605 of these flights will be domestic German flights, 885 will be intercontinental flights, and 2,570 will connect FRA with European destinations. Seat capacity will also grow by 7.9 percent to 730,000 seats per week. The growth is concentrated on European traffic (up 12.6 percent), while intercontinental and domestic German traffic is also growing slightly by 1.0 and 0.9 percent, respectively.

A few new additions will be made to the list of flight destinations this winter. For example, Air Astana will offer a flight from Frankfurt to Orál (URA) in Kazakhstan once a week. Those who prefer warmer temperatures can now fly with Condor to Nassau (NAS) in the Bahamas and to Samaná (AZS) in the Dominican Republic, both once a week. In continental traffic, Lufthansa will fly to the following new destinations from Frankfurt: Paderborn (PAD) in Germany, Pamplona (PNA) in Spain, Santiago de Compostela (SCQ) in Spain, Kuusamo (KAO) in Finland, Cluj (CLJ) in Romania, Timisoara (TSR) in Romania as well as Bari (BRI), Genoa (GOA), Palermo (PMO), and Catania (CTA) in Italy. Ryanair is offering new routes to Glasgow (GLA) and London Stansted (STN) in the UK as well as Italian destinations Venice-Treviso (TSF), Bergamo (BGY), Pisa (PSA), Brindisi (BDS), and Catania (CTA). In addition, Aegean Airlines will add Heraklion (HER) in Greece to its route network.

Moreover, connections to existing destinations will be expanded in the winter season. Lufthansa is increasing its number of flights to Cape Town (CPT) in South Africa from three to five times a week and augmenting the frequency to Rio de Janeiro (GIG) in Brazil by one more flight to seven times a week. Starting January 2, 2018, Vietnam Airlines will expand its offering to Hanoi (HAN) and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) in Vietnam to 10 flights per week and will also use a larger aircraft, namely the A350. Iran Air will offer one additional flight per week to Tehran (IKA) in Iran and will thus fly to the capital four times a week. Air China will increase its flight offering to Beijing (PEK), Shanghai (PVG), and Chengdu (CTU) in China by one flight each to 14, seven, and three flights per week, respectively.

Lufthansa is likewise expanding several of its domestic German routes. For example, it will offer seven additional flights a week to Berlin Tegel (TXL), 13 to Düsseldorf (DUS), and three flights each to Friedrichshafen (FDH), Hamburg (HAM), and Hanover (HAJ). Within Europe, there will be seven additional flights per week to each of the destinations Geneva (GVA) in Switzerland, Dublin (DUB) in Ireland, Verona (VRN) in Italy, Oslo (OSL) in Norway, Wroclaw (WRO) in Poland, and Gothenburg (GOT) in Sweden. Six additional flights a week will fly to Manchester (MAN) in the UK, Luxembourg City (LUX) in Luxembourg, and Pozna? (POZ) in Poland, while the connections to Budapest (BUD) in Hungary and Naples (NAP) in Italy will be bumped up by five and four flights per week, respectively. In addition, the weekly flight connections to Prague (PRG) in the Czech Republic, Barcelona (BCN), Bilbao (BIO), Málaga (AGP), and Valencia (VLC) in Spain, Athens (ATH) in Greece, Zagreb (ZAG) in Croatia, Reykjavik (KEF) in Iceland, Rome (FCO) in Italy, Krakow (KRK) in Poland, as well as Lisbon (LIS) and Porto (OPO) in Portugal will each be increased by three flights. Besides Lufthansa, British Airways is also expanding its current route network and will fly to London Heathrow (LHR) in the UK with an additional six flights per week.

Air Berlin, Vueling, Air Cairo, and AlMasria Universal Airlines will no longer be represented at Frankfurt Airport.

Note: All comparisons refer to the corresponding FRA Winter Timetable 2016/2017.