I looked and did not see this question asked before. We will be flying from Edinburgh to Frankfort, then Frankfort to the US on US passports. Both are on Lufthansa. We have a short (90 minute) layover. Will we have to go through customs or security again? It looks like we will be flying out of a different terminal, so have some worries.
thank you.
In FRA. UK is not in the EU any more.
Both your originating and final airports are non Schengen. Thus you should be able to stay airside and won't need to go through Passport Control in Frankfurt (please note the correct spelling). You will probably need to clear security. Customs isn't a concern until your arrival in the US.
What makes you think you will be flying out of a different terminal than your first flight?
Frankfurt is a big, huge, mess of an airport, but I am pretty sure that everything Lufthansa
in Frankfurt is in/out of Terminal 1. Terminal 2 is all the other non-alliance carriers. You
would most likely be going between A gates and Z gates, but those are all in T1.
If you do have to go between terminals, I believe you can do that without leaving the
secure area on the Skytrain.
As long as you don't leave the secure area, you should not have to go through security
again.
Thank you for your answers (and for noticing my typos :). I looked at where my flights landed and took off yesterday, and inbound flight landed in T1 and it says outbound departed from T2. I know this is not a guarentee, but a good guess will be close to that in a few weeks.
I feel a little better about our connection, thank you for your help.
The A-Z issue in T1 would have held in the past. But as I discovered this spring, Discover Airlines, LH's offshoot, uses C gates. When we landed from Philly on the same flight that used to use A gates before Discover, we landed the end ofC, with a long trek back to A that included security again. took about 90 minutes from wheels down to new gate. When we returned home, our Prague flight was late, we arranged for transit to get out to our flight because of the length, which turned out to be 4 different rides and still walk because of the passage in and out of clean areas. And security again. Had our flight back not been delayed we would have missed it.
And the ultimate craziness. Our gate was C/D 19, which is to load to a bus to a remote. And where did the bus take us? Somewhere back in the middle of C, where we walked up the stairs into a real gate and then boarded through a jetway.
A new T3 is being built in Frankfurt, and eventually T2 will be absorbed by LH, but
that is not the case right now.
You never know, maybe LH does fly out of T2 on occasion, but primarily not. If both
flights are out of T1, all the better. I did check myself and all EDI-FRA flights yesterday
and today landed in T1, so there's that as well.
As Larry points out though, even if you don't have to go to T2, it can be a long way to
your gate. And I have never been to an airport that uses more remote "gates" (or
tarmac spots) than Frankfurt.
everything Lufthansa in Frankfurt is in/out of Terminal 1.
Yes, but Terminal 1 covers a large area, comprising three buildings (A/Z, B, and C) connected by a shuttle, the SkyLine. Concourses A and Z are in one building. It's pretty extensive; Concourse Z is on the top level of the building and serves out-of-Schengen destinations, like the U.S. and Canada (and Ireland). - also SE Asia. Downstairs is Concourse A, which services in-Schengen destinations, most of Europe. If you are fortunate to come into Terminal 1, you'll arrive at a gate on the Z Concourse level and proceed to a gate on the same level. No immigration (passport control) and no security.
But, there is this second building, Concourse B. Concourse B has both in- and out-of-Schengen gates, in separate areas separated by immigration. If your arrival flight from Ireland and your departure flight to the US are both in Concourse B, it will be another simple change, just different gates and probably, different floors.
I don't think the Concourse C building will be a factor. Concourse C seems to be reserved for charter flights to out-of-Schengen destinations.
But, what if your arrival gate is at an out-of-Schengen gate in the B concourse and your departure gate is in the Z concourse, or visa versa. The only way to get between the A/Z building and the B building without going out through security and coming back in again is to use the SkyLine shuttle. The SkyLine has segregated sections of the stations in both the A/Z building and the B building. The isolated, out-of-Schengen parts of the B concourse and the Z Concourse, as well as the out-of-Schengen parts of Concourse D/E, are called the "transit" zone. It is possible to move, using the SkyLine, within the "transit" zone without having to go out of security or into the in-Schengen zones.
Frankfurt Airport has a connecting guide:
https://www.frankfurt-airport.com/en/flights-and-transfer/transferring-at-fra.html
