Munich Airport, Bavaria, Germany
Flughafen München (MUC): Terminals, Services, and Routes
Munich Airport (MUC), the second largest in Germany, is rated the best airport in Europe with good services and flights to numerous destinations in Europe and the world.
Munich Airport (MUC), around 30 km (20 miles) northeast of the Bavarian capital, is the second busiest airport in Germany. With a large number of domestic, European, and intercontinental flights, Munich Airport serves as main gateway to Munich, southern Bavaria, and parts of Austria.
In German, Munich Airport is Flughafen München. The full official name Flughafen München Franz Josef Strauß is almost never used. (Franz Josef Strauß (1915-1988) was a giant in post-war German politics and for ten years the prime minister of Bavaria.)
- For the past three years, Munich Airport was named Skytrax’s “Best Airport in Europe”.
Munich Airport Terminals
Munich Airport has two terminals, which are parallel to each other. Each building is close to a kilometer (0.6 miles) long meaning walking distances can be vast. Free buses are available to passengers only when transiting between the two terminals.
- Terminal 2 is used by Lufthansa and other Star Alliance partners.
- Terminal 1 is used by all other airlines including all low-cost airlines.
The two terminal buildings are connected through the subterranean Central Area (Zentralbereich) and the MAC (Munich Airport Center), where most shops and services are located. The S-Bahn trains stop in the central area while most shuttle buses stop at both terminals and often more than once per terminal.
- Airbräu at Munich Airport’s MAC is probably the only airport brewery in the world!
The luxury Kempinski Hotel is located between the two terminals and a very nice place to stay for those who can afford it. Hotels in nearby Freising are good alternatives to staying in Munich itself.
Statistics: Munich Airport versus Frankfurt and Düsseldorf
During 2006, 411,335 planes took off or landed at Munich Airport – at Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt International (FRA), the number was 489,406 and at Düsseldorf Airport (DUS), the third largest, 215,479. (Berlin’s three airports – Tegel, Schönefeld, and Tempelhof – together saw 250,502 plane movements.)
- Currently, 108 airlines fly from Munich to 246 destinations in 71 countries.
In terms of passenger numbers, Munich Airport with 30,778,352 passengers in 2006 is also the second busiest in Germany. (Full capacity would be around 50 million.) The huge gap to Frankfurt’s 52,810,683 passengers is mostly attributable to Frankfurt’s much higher number of intercontinental flights on which larger, wide-body planes are used. Düsseldorf was again third with 16.6 million passengers while 18.5 million passengers used Berlin’s three airports.
- The busiest route from Munich Airport is to Hamburg (1.6 million passengers) while the busiest international route is to London-Heathrow (1.02 million passengers).
More passengers fly on German domestic routes from Munich Airport than from any other airport in Germany. A large number of low-cost airlines offer cheap tickets from Munich while intercontinental flights are available to the Americas, Africa, and Asia. Alternative German airports to Munich include Frankfurt International (FRA), Nürnberg / Nuremberg (NUE), and Salzburg (SZG in Austria). Several ground transportation options make for easy access to Munich Airport.
Resources for Airport Statistics: Statistischer Jahresbericht 2006 – Flughafen München
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