Frankfurt Airport opened on July 8, 1936, on a site carved from the Frankfurt City Forest southwest of the city. Known then as the Flug- und Luftschiffhafen Rhein-Main, it was designed as both an aviation hub and an airship terminal. Two gigantic Zeppelin hangars were constructed on the grounds, and the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin landed there just six days after opening. The Hindenburg disaster of 1937 ended that chapter abruptly.

After World War II, the airport was rebuilt with the help of U.S. military forces and played a direct role in the Berlin Airlift of 1948-1949, when aircraft departed from Frankfurt carrying food and supplies to blockaded West Berlin. Regular civilian passenger traffic resumed in 1950. Terminal 1 opened on March 14, 1972, a project that made the airport one of Europe's largest construction zones at the time. Terminal 2 followed in 1994, connected to Terminal 1 by the SkyLine automated people mover. A fourth runway, the Northwest Runway, opened in October 2011, raising hourly capacity to 126 aircraft movements. Terminal 3 opened in April 2026, with Terminal 2 subsequently closing for a multi-year refurbishment.

The airport sits 12 kilometers southwest of Frankfurt city center, at the junction of two of Europe's most heavily trafficked motorways, the A3 and A5. It is the primary hub for Lufthansa and the broader Star Alliance network, and handled approximately 63.2 million passengers in 2025. In that same year, FRA led all European airports in hub connectivity, serving 301 destinations in 96 countries. It is also Europe's largest cargo airport by freight volume, processing around 2.1 million metric tons annually. The airport grounds form their own city district, Frankfurt-Flughafen, and with roughly 80,000 employees on site, it is Germany's single largest workplace.