Located at 12km southwest of central Frankfurt, Frankfurt Airport is operated by Fraport and serves as the main hub for Lufthansa. It has a capacity of approximately 65 million passengers per year, being the busiest airport by passenger traffic in Germany as well as the 4th busiest in Europe. Frankfurt Airport has two large main passenger terminals (1 and 2) and a much smaller dedicated First Class Terminal which is operated and exclusively used by Lufthansa.
The Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport and Airship Base was officially opened in 1936, and in the following years it became the second-largest airport in Germany and was home for the two largest German Zeppelins, LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin and LZ 129 Hindenburg. It was planned to make Frankfurt the most important destination for Zeppelins in Germany, but after the catastrophic crash of the Hindenburg in Lakehurst on 6 May 1937, the airship era came to an abrupt end.
The Allies destroyed the runway system with airstrikes in 1944 and the Wehrmacht blew up buildings and fuel depots in 1945, shortly before the US Army took control of the airport on 25 March 1945. After the German Instrument of Surrender the war in Europe ended and the US Army started to build a new temporary runway at Frankfurt Airport. The southern side of the airport ground was home to the Rhein-Main Air Base, which was a major air base for the United States from 1947 until 2005, when the air base was closed and the property was acquired by Fraport.
In 1951 restrictions for German air travellers were lifted and civil air traffic started to grow again. The airport did not emerge as a major international airline hub until 1958 when a new passenger terminal called Empfangsanlage Ost (Terminal East) opened. In 1962 it was decided to build an even larger terminal with a capacity of 30 million passengers per year. The new terminal, called Terminal Mitte (Central Terminal, today known as Terminal 1), was opened to the public in 1972. A new terminal was opened in 1994.
About the stamps
The first stamp is part of the series Felix The Rabbit, aboput which I wrote here. The last stamp is part of the series Baby Animals, about which I wrote here.
References
Frankfurt Airport - Wikipedia
Sender: Denise
Sent from Bremen (Bremen / Germany), on 15.06.2016
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