We have a 2 hour stop in Frankfurt International Airport (FRA) coming from Raleigh Durham airport (RDU0 and connecting for flight to Ljubljana (LJU). All flights are on Lufthansa airlines. Is the 2 hour stop enough time? Is it better to have only carry-on or to check the carry-on bags. Our flights have changed and we need to either accept or reschedule the last flight to have more time in FRA. We have never flown thru FRA before.
Flights on same ticket and travel is May 2026.
Is it one ticket, so the luggage will be checked trough? This case would be better. In the past I would have said that you will have a very good chance to make it.
A big question mark is when you will fly and when FRA will introduce self-service kiosks for EES, so will there be delays for Schengen entry?
Do you really have two full hours? Normally you have to be 15-20 minutes prior to departure at the gate (closing).
Another date question could be related to terminal 3 but if both flights are Lufthansa this should not be a problem.
If both flights are on the same ticket, you are protected in case of delays causing
you to miss your connecting flight.
Frankfurt is a large airport and they use a lot of tarmac gates (the plane parks at a
designated spot on the tarmac and you deplane to a bus that takes you into the
terminal). Be prepared for a fair bit of walking and be sure to read signs to get
to your connecting gate.
2 hours should be plenty in normal circumstances. LH should/will make sure you
get to LJU in the event of delays.
I would just about always travel with carryon bags if you can manage it. At the least,
you know where your bags are.
We just flew to Frankfurt about three weeks ago the day after Thanksgiving. From the time of landing until we were at our hotel in Frankfurt it was a little less than two hours. Therefore, I would say your two-hour layover time is sufficient since you are just staying at the airport - we have also flown through there a couple of times and had no problems.
We had to take a bus from the plane to the terminal and wait in a long line for passport control. While there were the kiosks, the guy told us they didn't save much time, and we still would have to wait in the same line if we used them. Perhaps by May it will be different.
I’ve been through Frankfurt a couple of times now, and I believe two hours will be fine. This should hold especially true on the inbound leg, which will usually put your arrival in the morning hours before the airport gets crazy busy.
I’ve had worse luck on the return (from LBU & ZAG specifically) due to delays, and ended up sprinting both times. They love deplaning you on the tarmac at gate Z84 and boarding you at Gate A10. There’s a small immigration checkpoint to get through when transferring as well (it’s pretty fast.) I’d treat your inbound trip through the airport like it’s a recon mission. Take a few minutes to get oriented and see where that checkpoint is for the trip home.
