Frankfurt Airport noise: flight paths, runways and night flights

Four runways, two directions

Frankfurt has four runways. Three run east to west: the Northwest Runway (07L/25R), the Centre Runway (07C/25C) and the South Runway (07R/25L). The fourth, the Startbahn West (runway 18), runs north to south. Each has a set role. The Northwest Runway, the newest and at 2,800 m the shortest, takes only landings. The Startbahn West takes only take-offs, always towards the south. The South Runway is used mainly for landings and the Centre Runway mainly for take-offs, though both can take either.

Planes land and take off into the wind, so the three parallel runways work one way or the other. On westerly days (operating direction 25), planes land towards the west, coming in over Offenbach and the south of Frankfurt, and take off towards Rüsselsheim and Flörsheim. On easterly days (direction 07), it all turns round: planes land towards the east over Flörsheim, Raunheim and Rüsselsheim, and take off over Frankfurt's city forest. Air traffic control keeps westerly operation until the tailwind reaches 5 knots, because it is the quieter direction for the region as a whole.

Over the last year, 55% of days were westerly and 28% easterly. On the other 17%, the direction changed during the day. Fraport's long-run average is about 70% westerly by traffic; counting flights, our year comes to about 62%, so it was more easterly than usual. Our guide to easterly and westerly operations explains what the switch means for a street.

The Startbahn West does not turn round. Whatever the wind, it sends take-offs south, and it carried about a third of all Frankfurt's traffic over the year. Easterly days come in spells, most often in winter and spring: 44% of days in April 2026 were easterly and 39% in January, while November 2025 was westerly on 83% of days.

Where landing planes fly

Landing planes line up with the runway well before the suburbs and descend on a straight line, so the same streets hear them at the same height every time.

Landing from the east (westerly days), there are two approach lines about 1.4 km apart. The northern one leads to the Northwest Runway (25R) and passes over Sachsenhausen at about 2,200 ft, 12 km out, and Niederrad at 1,500 ft. The southern one serves both the South Runway (25L) and the Centre Runway (25C), which lie only about 500 m apart. It crosses Offenbach's Tempelsee and Rosenhöhe districts at 2,200 to 2,750 ft, then Frankfurt's city forest, Neu-Isenburg at about 750 ft and Zeppelinheim at 400 ft. Over the year, the South Runway took 46% of westerly landings, the Northwest Runway 33% and the Centre Runway 21%.

Landing from the west (easterly days), the towns lie closer to the runway ends, so planes are lower over homes. The South Runway (07R), with 54% of easterly landings, is approached over Bischofsheim, then Rüsselsheim at 1,400 to 2,100 ft and Raunheim at 350 to 1,050 ft. The Northwest Runway (07L), with the other 45%, is approached over Gustavsburg, the south of Hochheim and Wicker, then Flörsheim at 700 to 1,050 ft. The Umwelthaus, the region's aircraft noise information centre, names Flörsheim as particularly affected, overflown at less than 300 m. Repeated roof damage in Flörsheim and Raunheim, where the wake of landing planes could not be ruled out as the cause, led to Fraport's roof-securing programme (see below).

Where take-offs go

Take-offs climb far faster than landings descend and turn onto set routes soon after the runway, so they reach more places but higher up.

The Startbahn West sends every take-off south. About 60% carry on south past Worfelden, some 3,350 ft up 8 km out, and 40% bend south-east over Gräfenhausen at about 3,850 ft.

On westerly days, take-offs from the parallel runways leave towards the west. About two-thirds turn south-west towards Rüsselsheim. Many of these fly the south bypass (Südumfliegung), a route opened with the Northwest Runway in 2011 that takes departures south before they turn north or north-west, keeping them clear of the Northwest Runway's landings. The other third carry on west over Flörsheim. On easterly days, three-quarters of take-offs head east over the city forest south of Sachsenhausen, about 3,300 ft up, and about one in five turns north over Gallus.

Night flights and quiet hours

Frankfurt bans scheduled flights between 23:00 and 05:00. In the shoulder hours, 22:00 to 23:00 and 05:00 to 06:00, no more than 133 flights a night are allowed on average over the calendar year. A plane due to land before 23:00 that is running late may still land until midnight; after that it has to divert. A late take-off after 23:00 needs individual permission and is allowed only for delays the airline could not plan for, and there are no take-offs at all after midnight. Emergency, medical and disaster-relief flights are exempt. Our guide to night flight rules compares Frankfurt's ban with other airports.

On westerly days, Frankfurt also leaves some runways unused in the shoulder hours, so different areas get a seven-hour noise break: 22:00 to 05:00 for some, 23:00 to 06:00 for others. These Lärmpausen began as a trial in April 2015 and have been permanent since May 2016. After 22:00, for example, landings normally use the South Runway, so the approach to the Northwest Runway over Niederrad and Sachsenhausen goes quiet an hour early. The Umwelthaus DROps app shows which runways rested in the last shoulder hour and which will rest in the next. The breaks were suspended while the Centre Runway was resurfaced, from 8 to 24 March 2026.

Our recordings match the ban. A typical night has no landings or take-offs from about 23:15 to 05:00, and then traffic starts at once: about 28 flights between 05:00 and 06:00 and 35 between 06:00 and 07:00. Counting 23:00 to 07:00, 66 planes landed or took off on an average night over the last year, and 118 on the busiest. With about 50 flights between 22:00 and 23:00, the two shoulder hours came to around 77 a night on our sample days, well under the 133 allowed on average.

Busy days and quiet days

Frankfurt handled 460,272 flights in 2025, 4.4% more than in 2024, or about 1,260 a day. Our count from recorded flights is a little lower, about 1,210 a day, because a small share of flights are not captured. Traffic is lowest in winter, just under 1,000 a day in January 2026, and highest in summer and autumn, at 1,280 to 1,330 a day. Sunday was the busiest day of the week on average and Tuesday the quietest, though the gap is small.

For most homes near Frankfurt, the runway direction and the time of day decide whether it is a loud day far more than the day's total does.

Changes ahead: a new operating concept and noise zones

Fraport and DFS, the air traffic control provider, have worked out a revised way of running westerly days, first presented in June 2025 and shown to the Frankfurt noise commission in May 2026. It changes only take-offs from the Centre Runway: when many planes are waiting to leave, more would use the existing north-west departure routes, and at quieter times the south bypass would stay in use. Fraport expects to need it from around 2030, with forecasts of about 560,000 flights a year by 2033. It comes with a noise package: an early-morning break on the north-west routes, fixed until 06:00 and until 07:00 whenever possible, passive noise protection beyond the legal minimum and a voluntary noise protection zone in the north-west. Flörsheim and Hattersheim's Eddersheim district are among the places that would hear more take-offs, and parts of Mainz, Wiesbaden, Rüsselsheim and Nauheim fewer.

At the same time, the state of Hesse is redrawing Frankfurt's noise protection area, the zones that decide who can claim for sound insulation. The current one dates from 2011. The new one is calculated for 2033 and planned for the end of 2026; Fraport says it will be smaller overall, with noise shifting between areas. If you are buying near Frankfurt, check where the new zones and the north-west routes fall.

Complaints, insulation and help

To complain, call Fraport's noise line on 069 690 60600, open daily from 05:00 to midnight, or use the enquiry portal on its website. Fraport's team answers in coordination with Hesse's aircraft noise officer and DFS.

To check a flight, Fraport's FRA.NoM map, relaunched in November 2025, shows take-off and landing tracks with readings from its noise monitors and has an address search. Our free Frankfurt flight map replays recorded days.

For insulation, the 2011 noise protection area set three zones: day zone 1 (60 dB(A) or more by day), day zone 2 (55 dB(A) or more) and a night zone (50 dB(A) or more, or at least six peaks above 53 dB(A) indoors a night). Homes in day zone 1 and the night zone could claim the cost of sound insulation, and compensation was also paid for gardens and balconies. The deadline for those claims passed on 12 October 2021. By then Fraport had paid for insulation in 24,400 homes (€28 million) and outdoor compensation to 11,900 (€32 million). New claims will depend on the new noise protection area.

For roofs, Fraport secures roof tiles free of charge for eligible owners in the areas the state defined in 2013 and 2014, and the offer has no deadline. Fraport's FRA.Map shows whether a house is eligible, and applications go to dachsicherung@fraport.de.