Aerosoft has recently released their rendition of Frankfurt Airport (EDDF) for Microsoft Flight Simulator. It is Germany’s busiest airport, with a yearly average of 59 million passengers.

Inaugurated in mid-1936, Frankfurt quickly became a central distribution point for airmail transport to North America, and its passenger figures were not too shabby: It carried over 58,000 people during its first year of operation! 

It was transferred to the Luftwaffe during World War 2, which led to the dismantling of the famous airships and their hangars. Then, the runway was fully converted into a military airfield. Four years later, Allied bombings destroyed it.

Shortly after the war, the US Army took over the airport and built a new main runway and a base (Rhein-Main base). 

In the early 1950s, civil air traffic slowly returned to normal: over 400,000 passengers passed through the airport in 1951.

It wasn’t until 1958 that Frankfurt would emerge as an international airline hub with the opening of East Terminal. Within four years, it was already too small for the figures at hand, with Frankfurt being the second busiest airport in Europe after Heathrow.

In 1965, a new terminal was built to handle 30 million passengers per year, followed by a runway extension to accommodate larger aircraft.

A new main terminal, known as the “Central Terminal,” was built in 1972. It is divided into three concourses with 56 gates. At the time, it was assumed that the capacity would be sufficient for the next 30 years!

Work on Terminal 2 started sooner than expected (in the early 1990s) because it turned out their Central Terminal was insufficient for the next thirty years. It opened in 1994, bringing the passenger handling capacity to 54 million passengers annually.

Developed by Jo Erlend Sund, Lukas Vezyroglou, and their team, Mega Airport Frankfurt promises a highly accurate rendition of Germany’s busiest airport. It features custom ground textures, custom jetways,  custom ground service equipment, terminal interiors, custom terraforming, and much more.

It’s available on the Aerosoft Shop for roughly $22.17 (excluding VAT) and requires at least 4.5 GB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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