A new terminal opened at Germany’s largest airport in Frankfurt on Wednesday, designed to handle around 19 million passengers a year.

Operator Fraport marked the opening with a ceremony in the western German city, 10 years on from the beginning of construction work.

Completion of Terminal 3 was initially planned for 2022 but was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. Fraport has invested around €4 billion ($4.7 billion) in the terminal, well beyond the original estimate of between €2.5 billion and €3 billion.

The first planes set to use the terminal from Thursday are from Chinese airlines.

The new terminal could be expanded to accommodate 25 million passengers, matching the capacity of Germany’s fourth-largest airport in Dusseldorf.

In 2025, around 63 million passengers were registered at Frankfurt Airport in around 460,000 departures and landings.

Despite disruption linked to the war in Iran, Fraport chief executive Stefan Schulte said that the airport is expected to remain on target for between 65 million and 66 million passengers in 2026.

With the addition of the new terminal, the airport can handle an estimated 700,000 flights per year.

Construction of the third terminal attracted protests against noise and environmental pollution in the region.