Question 1

Is Hamburg really the world’s oldest airport still in operation?

Accepted Answer

That is how the airport itself describes it: aircraft — first airships, then planes — have taken off and landed on this same Fuhlsbüttel site since 1911, and the operator’s own company portrait calls it "the world’s oldest commercial airport." Today it is Germany’s fifth-largest by traffic, on a 570-hectare site that started out at 44 hectares.

Question 2

Which terminal is my airline at Hamburg Airport?

Accepted Answer

Check the airport’s own Airlines A-Z directory — it lists every carrier’s terminal individually. By that list, Terminal 1 hosts 26 airlines including Emirates, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines and easyJet; Terminal 2 hosts 25, led by Lufthansa alongside British Airways, KLM, Air France, SWISS and Ryanair. Sylt Air is the exception: it flies from the separate General Aviation Terminal, not from T1 or T2.

Question 3

What is Slot&Fly, and is it worth booking?

Accepted Answer

Slot&Fly is a free, dedicated lane to the security checkpoint in Terminal 1, entered to the right of the main security entrance. You can reserve a time slot online up to 72 hours before departure — or on-site up to one hour before, if slots remain. It does not guarantee you clear security within that window (the federal police run the checkpoint itself), but it does guarantee you a plannable route to it. Families with small children and passengers using wheelchairs or rollators wider than 50 cm cannot use it — the PRM/family lane in the Plaza covers them instead.

Question 4

How do I get from Hamburg Airport into the city?

Accepted Answer

The S-Bahn line S1 is the direct option: it reaches Hamburg Central Station in 25 minutes, every 10 minutes, with a stop reachable straight from both terminals’ arrivals halls by lift, escalator or stairs. One stop away, at Ohlsdorf, you can switch to the U1 underground line. If you’d rather go by bus, four public routes — 274, two variants of 292, and X95 — stop right outside Terminal 1, plus a night bus (606).

Question 5

How early should I arrive, and where do I check in?

Accepted Answer

The airport’s own advice is to arrive about 2 hours before departure; airlines usually open check-in counters 2–3 hours ahead, and some allow evening-before check-in for flights leaving up to noon the next day. If you’re dropping bags yourself, there are 30 self-bag-drop machines in total — 20 in Terminal 1 and 10 in Terminal 2 — provided you already have a boarding pass.

Question 6

Do I need to do anything extra for passport control now?

Accepted Answer

If you’re flying beyond the Schengen area, allow extra time and use the automated EasyPASS gates if you’re eligible — since a recent update, third-country nationals aged 12+ with a German residence permit and an electronic passport can use them too. Since 2 December 2025, non-EU travellers on short stays also go through the EU’s Entry/Exit System — EES for short — at a self-service kiosk that scans an electronic passport, your face and fingerprints instead of stamping the passport.

Hamburg, Hamburg

HAM questions travelers actually ask