Frankfurt Airport (FRA) transfers at a fixed price

Frankfurt Airport in brief

Frankfurt Airport is Germany's largest airport and one of Europe's most important connecting hubs. Two terminals handle passengers: Terminal 1, with concourses A, B, C and Z, and Terminal 3, in operation since 2026, with concourses H and J. Which one applies to you is printed on your boarding pass and follows from the airline — Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners use Terminal 1, while a large share of other carriers use Terminal 3.

The two terminals are linked by the SkyLine elevated train, with walkways and shuttle buses at forecourt level as alternatives. Rail travellers have two separate stations: the regional station beneath Terminal 1 for S-Bahn and local services, and the long-distance station for ICE and IC trains. All useful to know — and all irrelevant to a pre-booked transfer, because your driver comes to the terminal where you actually land.

That is the practical difference. There is exactly one place you need to remember at the airport: the arrivals level of your terminal. Your driver waits beyond the customs exit holding a name sign, takes your luggage and walks you to the car. No ticket to buy, no changes, no queue at a rank, and no question about whether the vehicle is big enough — the class was fixed when you booked.

How the fixed price is calculated

Your fare comes from two things: the distance between the airport and your address, and the vehicle class you choose. Both are settled before you book — you enter the address, see the price per class, and then decide. There is no meter running during the ride, and no surcharge that only becomes visible when you get out.

The fixed price covers the ride itself, tolls and road charges along the route, the airport's access and short-stay parking fees at pickup, and waiting time within the agreed allowance. What changes the price are things you control: an additional stop, a larger vehicle class, a return leg. Each of those appears in the booking form before you confirm.

The price is also independent of the clock. A three-in-the-morning pickup costs the same as the identical route on a Wednesday afternoon, and there is no demand surcharge on public holidays or during trade fairs. You pay online when booking or at the end of the ride by card or in cash; business customers can be invoiced.

On arrival, step by step

You provide your flight number when booking. Your driver uses it to track the actual flight status and works from the real landing time rather than the scheduled one. If the aircraft lands early, the driver is there early; if it is hours late, the pickup moves with it, without you needing to call or rebook.

After landing you take the normal route: passport control where required, then baggage reclaim, then the customs exit. Immediately beyond your concourse's customs exit, your driver is holding a sign with your name on it. 60 minutes of waiting are included from the actual landing time — enough to absorb a slow baggage belt or a long queue at passport control.

If you cannot see the driver straight away, perhaps because your concourse exit has changed, the phone number is in your booking confirmation. One call is enough to adjust the meeting point. A last-minute terminal change is not a problem either, and costs nothing extra — the driver simply moves across.

Leaving on time — when should you set off?

For the outbound trip, work backwards from your departure time. As a guide, be at the terminal roughly 120 minutes before departure for flights within the Schengen area, and around 180 minutes for long-haul and non-Schengen flights. Add the driving time from your address, which every route page on this site states in real kilometres and minutes.

Then add a buffer for traffic. The approaches to the airport run via the A3 and the A5, and both are noticeably busier at commuting times and around major trade fairs. If you are travelling between seven and nine in the morning or four and seven in the evening, plan more generously than your navigation app suggests.

You do not have to work the pickup time out yourself: enter your departure time and address, and the booking form proposes a pickup time that already accounts for driving time and check-in lead. If you would rather leave earlier, simply overwrite the suggestion. At the terminal we drive up to the departures level, so you are only a few metres from check-in with your bags.

Luggage, child seats and special requests

How much luggage travels with you depends on the vehicle class, and the capacity is stated on each class — passenger and suitcase counts are not estimates but the same figures the booking system uses. If you are unsure, take the next class up: a van costs a little more than a saloon, and far less than a second vehicle.

Child seats and booster seats are available on request and should be noted in the booking's comments field so the driver brings them. The same goes for bulky items such as skis, golf bags, pushchairs or musical instruments — tell us in advance and the right vehicle class is planned in, rather than improvised at the terminal.

Travelling with a pet, a wheelchair or a walking aid can be arranged too, as can stops along the way, for instance to collect a second passenger. These belong in the booking rather than in a conversation with the driver at the airport: anything known in advance is planned for and reflected in the fixed price.

Business travel and corporate bookings

For business travellers an airport transfer is above all a planning tool. The price is known before the trip, so it can be approved in advance or booked to a project, instead of turning up in expenses as a variable taxi receipt. Where preferred, rides are invoiced, with a proper document showing VAT separately.

If you are having guests, clients or candidates collected, book the transfer in their name: the driver meets them with a name sign at arrivals, helps with luggage and takes them onward without further effort. Your guest never deals with payment or booking at all — that is the difference between a transfer and a taxi voucher.

Where several people travel on the same day, or the same route repeats, it is worth agreeing details in advance so vehicle classes and timings line up. We take enquiries of that kind 24/7 — flight operations in Frankfurt do not follow office hours, and neither does availability for transfers.

Trade fairs, congresses and major events

Frankfurt is one of Europe's largest exhibition cities, and you notice it on exactly two days of any event: arrival day and departure day. Taxi ranks at the airport stay occupied longer, the approach roads are fuller, and hotel rooms are booked further out — which makes the journeys longer too. A transfer settled in advance takes the uncertainty out of both days.

In practice: you book the pickup with your flight number, and the car is ready regardless of how busy the rank happens to be. The same applies in reverse for the trip back to the airport — especially on the final day of a fair, when everyone leaves at once, a fixed pickup time outside your hotel is worth more than hoping for a free taxi.

If you are arriving with stand staff, clients or materials, several vehicles can be set to the same time, or stops added along the way. The principle of this page applies here too: anything known in advance is in the fixed price, and there is no demand surcharge during a trade fair.

Early departures, night arrivals and public holidays

A large share of long-haul flights land early in the morning, and many holiday flights leave before six. That is precisely when public transport either does not run or runs on a night timetable, and when fewer cars wait at the rank. At those hours a pre-booked transfer is not merely more comfortable — it is simply the more dependable option.

Booking works around the clock and the price does not change for it: 24/7 at the same fixed price, with no night, weekend or public-holiday surcharge. On 24 December or on New Year's Eve the route costs what it costs on an ordinary Tuesday.

For very early departures it pays to give the address precisely — house number, and the rear building or hotel entrance where relevant. At night an ambiguous address is the most common cause of lost minutes, and those minutes are missing at check-in.

Who drives, and in what vehicle

Journeys are operated by a licensed private-hire company under the German Passenger Transport Act — not as a private ridesharing arrangement and not as a taxi. The practical difference for you: the ride carries commercial insurance, the driver holds a passenger-transport permit, and the price is agreed beforehand rather than decided by a meter.

Vehicle classes differ in space and appointments, not in reliability: each class has fixed figures for passengers and suitcases, and those are the exact figures the booking system dispatches against. You are not booking a vaguely defined category but a specific capacity.

At the airport your driver meets you with a name sign, helps with the luggage and walks you to the car. On the way to the airport he drives up to the departures level. Both are part of the transfer and are not charged separately.

Every passenger is welcome — regardless of background, gender, identity or orientation. Our drivers are explicitly LGBTQ+ friendly, and couples, families of every shape, women travelling alone and guests who need assistance are driven with exactly the same matter-of-factness as anyone else. Pets travel too: state the species and size when booking and the right vehicle class is ready — guide and assistance dogs with no notice and no surcharge.