The terminal isn't due to open until 2026 but could be put to use in as little as 12 months.

While still four years away from its planned opening, Frankfurt Airport’s new Terminal 3 is starting to resemble an airport terminal. The airport invited Simple Flying to see inside the terminal’s G pier, which could be made ready in as little as 12 months if needed.

Fraport, the company that runs Frankfurt Airport, has now finished building Terminal 3's pier G. Under normal circumstances, travelers would expect that the facility may already be eyeing an opening. As passenger demand is forecast to remain suppressed, the pier has been temporarily decommissioned for the time being. Fraport has installed the baggage system, though much of the terminal remains empty for the time being.

The access routes for Terminal 3 are still under construction. It isn’t possible to drive to the forecourt or take the people mover as both facilities are yet to be completed. Instead, we arrived at Terminal 3 via bus, entering the terminal via a side forecourt on the arrivals level.

While limited facilities are already installed inside the terminal, the vast majority of the building currently consists of empty rooms. We immediately climbed a staircase before arriving at the departure level upon entering the airport.

For the time being, just one of the piers that will make up Terminal 3 has been built. As this could go into operation before the main bulk of the terminal, it needs to be self-sufficient. The check-in hall was a relatively modest size and only contained roughly 22 desks. The hall was piled high with trolleys full of suitcases, tagged and ready to test the baggage system.

After introducing himself and welcoming us to the facility, Stefan Schulte, CEO of Fraport, led us down a corridor towards a large empty room. This room, though empty now, will one day become a busy security check facility. So far, the only security mechanisms installed are shutters and fencing to separate the airside area from the landside area once the facility opens.

Interestingly, the fire escape floorplan already shows the room populated with security equipment. There will eventually be eight security control points in this large hall, with one more checkpoint in an adjacent room.

The departure lounge currently had the charm of an empty warehouse. While the building is complete and safe to visit without safety measures such as a hard hat, the interior is mainly as-is. That is to say, there is currently an awful lot of concrete and not much else. While Fraport will surely add some decoration before the pier opens, the artist's impressions suggest that much of the concrete will remain. This makes sense once you understand the terminal's "German Urban Lifestyle" theme.

Pier G is currently 400 meters long, though there are plans to extend it to 200m. Interestingly, there are no provisions to install travelators in the terminal. Instead, once passing security, passengers find a winding path past retail space towards a space of escalators. While there are no signs of shops, shutters for the future residents are already present in places.

Continuing past the shops leads to escalators going down to the ground level. The Pier G gates are all on the ground level. No jet bridges are planned here. Instead, passengers will walk across the apron to the aircraft in most cases, though it is possible to add jet bridges later. Right now, the pier has 13 gates, four of which are bus gates. Nearest to the main terminal building is the Schengen gates. These passengers don't need to pass through a passport check, so arriving and departing passengers intermix.

Pier G is designed for point-to-point passengers on direct flights from low-cost and leisure carriers. As such, there are no lounges. Halfway down the pier is a passport control point. Non-Schengen passengers leaving Germany are required to undergo passport control. There are six passport control points for departing passengers, two of which look dedicated to e-gate users. One of my bugbears with Terminal 2 is the lack of employees completing manual checks leading to long waits, and I fear that this could become the case at Terminal 3 during peak times.

Interestingly, Frankfurt Airport hasn't clearly distinguished the Schengen and non-Schengen gates. The gates in the middle of the terminal can be switched from Schengen to non-Schengen and back again by opening and closing doors.

Read more: What Is The Schengen Area & Why Does It Matter?

As mentioned above, arriving Schengen travelers don't need to undergo a passport check, so they are released into the terminal, where they can mix with departing passengers. By contrast, non-Schengen travelers must be kept separate. Upon arrival, non-Schengen passengers are directed to the upper floor. Passengers are directed towards a block of passport control windows.

Again, two look to be dedicated to e-gate passengers raising a flag, though there are 12 more for passengers needing manual checks. Rather than the dull boxes that house the Bundespolizei in Terminal 2, Terminal 3 has much more stylish curved glass "bubbles".

Just past the passport check is three narrow one-way corridors where arrivals from Schengen countries can join the flow of non-Schengen arrivals. This is located by the escalators mentioned above. Passengers then proceed down a long corridor before arriving at a set of steps and escalators down to the baggage reclaim area.

There are three baggage reclaim belts in the hall as things currently stand. When the options to extend Pier G are exercised, this will increase to five. There's not much to say about the three belts, though the hall they are in is incredibly spacious. Perhaps a more exciting story is how the bags get around the terminal.

Fraport will install most of the equipment to go into Pier G in the 12 months leading to its opening. One major piece of equipment already present in the building is the baggage system. During our visit, the baggage system was undergoing a test. However, it was not a routine test. Each check-in desk had an employee loading bag after bag, essentially flooding the baggage system to see if it could cope.

At regular intervals, bag tags are scanned, and they could also be seen passing through an x-ray scanner before being sorted into their respective "flights". In reality, they were placed on carts to be moved back to the check-in area. You may think that bags enter a similar system after unloading from arriving flights. The reality is much less exciting. Bag trolleys are taken straight to the wall behind the baggage belt, with bags placed straight on the relevant reclaim belt.

Once bags have been collected, there is a short walk through the area to become the customs check zone one day. Passengers then arrive in the hall where we entered the building at the start of the tour.

The main terminal, featuring piers H and J, is still very much under construction. We walked up onto the area that will one day be the drop-off zone to see the progress. The impressive parking structure has already been completed, and the main building's roof is already in place, held up by temporary supports. This whole facility is expected to be completed in 2026. Unless needed earlier, Pier G will now open alongside the rest of the building.

Once the entire terminal building is completed, it will be able to accommodate up to 21 million passengers a year. There are plans to connect Pier G to the rest of the terminal rather than running it as a standalone facility.

Are you excited to see Fraport completing the building of Terminal 3's Pier G? Which airlines do you think will use the new facility? Let us know what you think and why in the comments!

Content Manager – Degree educated in Aerospace Technology, this certified pilot is a passionate specialist in European aviation. Working closely with British Airways, Lufthansa and others, Tom provides commentary on topical issues for outlets including the BBC. Based in Frankfurt, Germany.