Airport - Connections and Airlines, Munich

If you need to, you can store luggage at the airport. Cost (as of April 2013) is between EUR 2.30 and EUR 7.50 (depending on size) for the first 3 hours, between EUR 3.80 and EUR 10 per piece for up to 24 hours, then between EUR 2.80 and EUR 8.50 for each 24-hour period thereafter.

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Munich's Franz Josef Strauss Airport (Airport Code: MUC) is located about 35 km (20 miles) to the north of Munich. In addition to being a hub airport for Lufthansa, the airport is used by many international carriers and budget airlines. Air Canada flies directly to Munich, as do the US carriers United, Delta, and US Airways.

If you're staying in Munich and want to rent a car, keep in mind traffic is quite bad. Even if you're planning a car tour of Europe starting with one or more overnights in Munich, you might want to wait to rent the car until your Munich stay is over. Similarly, if you plan to spend your final evening in Munich before flying home, consider turning in the rental car on arrival in Munich and using public transport to get to the airport.

The Lufthansa Airport Bus is a possibility, stopping at the Nordfriedhof U-Bahn station (U6) and the Hauptbahnhof, costing EUR 10.50 1-way (EUR 5.50 per child) and EUR 17 round-trip. The buses depart about every 20 minutes, and are scheduled to take approximately 25 minutes to get to Nordfriedhof, and 40 minutes to get to the Hauptbahnhof (travel time varies depending on traffic).

My recommendation to get downtown, however, is to take the S-Bahn. The S-1 and S-8 depart alternately about every 10 minutes. Travel time downtown is 40-50 minutes, depending on where you're going.

Costs: Railpasses (e.g. Eurail, Selectpass, German Rail Pass) are valid on the S-Bahn only (i.e. not the U-Bahn, trams, or buses), but require use of a travel day on a flexi pass -- a bad value unless you're taking a train well outside of Munich the day you arrive. A 1-way ticket costs EUR 10.40 with cash (a bit less with "non-cash" options -- see the website for details), but for just a bit more (EUR 11.20), you can buy a "Single Tageskarte Gesamtnetz," which covers the trip plus all of Munich's S-Bahns, U-Bahns, trams, and buses for the rest of the day. An even better deal for 2-5 travelers is the "Partner Tageskarte Gesamtnetz," which costs EUR 20.40, the same as two 1-way tickets alone, and covers the transit system for the whole day for up to 5 people traveling together. You can purchase tickets at the DB ticket booths or at the easy-to-use ticket machines (the ones at the airport even take credit cards!). Remember to validate your ticket in the machines marked "E" before you board. (NOTE: There is also a ticket available called the "Airport-City-Day Ticket," which acts as and costs the same as a Tageskarte Gesamtnetz. The only difference is you don't need to cancel the Airport-City-Day Ticket, i.e., you must use it on the day you buy it.)

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I've used this airport many times in the last 2 years, on trips to the Ingolstadt area of Bavaria - about 45 minutes by car from the airport.

Arrivals have always been easy and fast. Same with departures.

Most of my trips have been on easyJet, so using terminal 1. Checkin is in the "Z" area, 1 floor below the others, in the middle section of the building. It is quick and painless - I have an easyJet Plus card which means a dedicated check counter. £100 p-a, so good value.

Passport control can be a little slow, depending on other flights leaving about the same time. Usually it is quite bearable.

Departure zone C - used by easyJet - has the Atlantic Lounge, which I can use (free of charge) by dint of my Diners Club card. TV, newspapers, drinks, snacks and comfortable seats all help to make the trip start well. £30 p-a for the card, so with about 12 flights in a year it's worth it for the coffee alone.

Access by car to the airport is very easy, and you can drop off right at the terminal door.

Train access is by the S-Bahn from the city centre - no mainline trains. They run every 20 minutes from the Hauptbahnhof (and other city centre stations). That's where you'll get a mainline train connection.

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Probably we shall start with the beginning and the beginning for us was the landing on the Munich Airport…
It was nothing special with the airport but once out of the airport we have understood why Germany is so “German”.
Even the airplanes are special, the seats are new and everywhere you’ll find real leather and the best quality materials.
All is clean, all is well organized, all is built to last and all is built around people.
The entrance to the airport is covered, the parking are there, train station is there, the rent cars are there, taxi station is there either.

And, as even my 8 years old sun discovered, you can easily see the richness of the place EVERYWHERE.

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Whenever I fly to Ancona (Italy), I have to change planes in Munich. And it is now my most favourite airport in Germany. But only recently I realised that it is the second biggest German airport when it comes to transport passengers. Very interesting, especially since I do not really like my home airport Frankfurt, which is just too big and where I cannot refrain from thinking that the airport managers are a bit overstrained. Often I have to walk a lot to get to my gates.
Not so in Munich. Even though the flights to Italy with Air Dolomiti involve bus transfer to the planes, it always seems to very efficient and excellent organised.

Ok, the hard facts are that Munich’s airport, named Franz-Josef Strauß Airport (after the famous Bavarian politician) is in operation since 1992. It is located approx. 30 km NE of the city, easy in reach with public transport (streetcar/Straßenbahn S1 and S8, 45 min from main station). It has two terminals, T2 being the one where Lufthansa and Star Alliance flights are being checked. As of today, 110 airlines fly regularly into and out of Munich, 230 destinations worldwide being served. The airport has two runways, the third one will most likely not be built, as a result of a citizens’ decision mid June 2012.

Terminal 2 is a very convenient airport, with only a short part without transport bands/ moving walkways, as opposed to Frankfurt where long distances have to be walked, especially strenuous when one has to catch another flight.... In the middle of the terminal the food and shopping stores are located, often quite pricey.

But in case one wants to save some money, here are my suggestions:
* get your free coffee (several varieties including hot chocolate) from one of the Lufthansa self-serving machines, which are quite abundant here and I found them always filled and functioning (as opposed to Frankfurt!). Don’t worry, even if you are not a Lufthansa or Star Alliance passenger: these machines are for everyone,
* in “Little Italy”, or “Spazio Italia” in the lower level (L3), the prices are very reasonable and good food is being served too. Although it is only snacks. But for my double caffè macchiato plus croissant plus San Pellegrino Limonata I paid only 6,60 Euro in August 2012 (Limonata: 3,10, croissant: 1,80, caffè macchiato: 1,70). This level is located down the escalators just behind the mini Allianz-Arena.

Location of Munich Airport on Google Maps.

© Ingrid D., August 2012 (just in case, RickS, Facebook users or others come along and think they can steal texts or photos).

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It is about a 15-18 mile drive into the Inner Ring Road from the airport, located off A92 autobahn. If traffic is not heavy , the time to get to the Inner Road would be about 25-30 minutes; but from there to get to the center of the city, it may take another 20+ minutes.
The airport is laid out very well to find your way around. The issue is the size takes a lot of walking to get to the rental car pick up, or other transportation from the gates

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Munich Airport is located 30 km north of Munich, Germany and is a hub for Lufthansa and Star Alliance partner airlines.

It lies nearby the old city of Freising and is named in memory of politician Franz Josef Strauss.

The Munich Airport Centre (MAC) is a shopping, business and recreation area that connects the two terminals. The older Central Area which was originally built as part of Terminal 1, hosts a shopping mall and the S-Bahn station. The newer MAC Forum built with Terminal 2 is a large outdoor area with a tent-like, partly transparent roof. Next to it is the airport hotel managed by Kempinski.

As its the hub, u can get many connections to other parts of Germany and also Europe, just check the last minute desks on the second level which u can grab a promo rate for ur next flight .. :)

I took a flight from Cologne to Munich with AirBerlin. The cost was only 58€ in total (I booked in April) and the quality was very good. Of course it is a low-cost carrier, but I think it is definitely one of the better ones. You don't get any food (apart from a small piece of chocolate as a souvenir), but I think that is not necessary on a flight that only takes an hour.

From the airport, it was easy to connect to the city by train.

A nice memory is that when taking off to fly home, it was possible to see the Allianz Arena from the plane!

I flew over to Munich on the 17.10 Lufthansa flight from Heathrow. Flight took 1 hr 50 minutes.

Unlike some of the other cheap airlines, Lufthansa does a decent flight with a coffee and sandwich thrown in.

Then I took the regular shuttle bus into town €10,50 single or €17.00 return.

The bus was a 45 minute journey, dropping us off close to the hotel at the main Hauptbahnhof railway station.

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Munich airport has often been ranked as one of the top 10 airports in the world, and one of the top 3 airports in Europe. In fact, in 2010 it has been chosen as the best airport in Europe. Of all the airports in Europe, I've been to Budapest, Paris (many times), Frankfurt and also Munich, and I can say that I find Munich very traveller-friendly and welcoming. :)
Transiting was a breeze. The airport is well-signposted in English and German. Lufthansa and its Star Alliance partners (such as Singapore Airlines) operate out of Terminal 2. I flew on Lufthansa from Shanghai to Frankfurt, with a transfer in Munich. Unfortunately the stopover was only for about 3 hours in the early morning, and I didn't have the luxury of extending (was on work) so I couldn't leave the airport to enjoy the wonderful sights of Munich. However I enjoyed what I saw of the airport transit area and based on that experience would love to go back again!
The duty-free shop was reasonably good in its selection of perfumes, alcohol and also European and German souvenirs such as beer, sausages, chocolate etc. Since it was a couple of weeks before Easter, there were pretty Easter-themed chocolate souvenirs on sale when I went. I can't be sure, but they might look better than they taste. ;)
Souvenirs, snacks, drinks, magazines and books can also be found at the convenience stores. I finally found my postcards here, and the friendly staff will also sell stamps. If you want to post the postcards, one of the staff kindly offered to help me with that (just give the postcards to her after you're done writing them) and the postcards reached me fine. Figure on about 1.5-2 EUR for a postcard, and 1 EUR for postage.
There're plenty of places to eat, what I saw in the early morning were mainly cafes which open around 0500 to 0600. For a sample of prices (I took photographs of the menu at Dallmayr Bistro), figure on about 6.5-15 EUR for a breakfast set, 5-7 EUR for a sandwich, 2-3 EUR for a pastry/croissant, 2-6 EUR for a coffee/tea -- prices quoted exclude taxes. However I wanted to save my money and eat on the plane, so I didn't get the chance to try anything.
If you're lucky enough (like me) to fly and transit on Star Alliance airlines, you'll be pleased to find that you can enjoy free cups of coffee, chocolate, milk or tea (or even just hot water) at the beverage stations in the transit area of Terminal 2. The options on the self-service machines are only in German, good luck figuring them out. ;) If you're an English-speaker and go to cafes frequently, most of the names won't be too difficult. It took me some time to figure out that "Heisse Schokolade" is hot chocolate (it was easier when I heard another traveller beside me reading it out!), "Milch fur Tee/Kaffee" will give you hot milk and "Heisse Wasser" is hot water. As for tea, you can have your pick of green, Ceylon (English), fruit and vanilla. There're plenty of paper cups, serviettes, sugar and stirrers available. If you read German, there're also a lot of newspapers and some magazines available for free, I forgot if there were any English-language newspapers but I think so.
I found toilets a little scarce in the transit area -- had to walk a little far from where I was to get to one. Either that, or the signs didn't direct me to the nearest toilets. In any case, I found the toilets to be very clean, reasonably spacious and with enough cubicles.
I find at Munich and Frankfurt airports that passengers generally do the check-in process with the self-service machines (great for saving on labour). If you run into problems, then go to the staff standing around and try to get them to help. After choosing your seat and printing out your boarding pass, go to the check-in counters if you have any luggage to check-in, otherwise you can go directly to your boarding gate. At the boarding gate, you can scan the boarding pass at a "ticket gate", if everything goes well (ie you're not trying to board the wrong flight at the wrong place), the gate will open and you can walk down to your plane. Being a rather new traveller with non-Asian airports, I was very pleasantly surprised as this method is much more efficient and easier for travellers who might not be able to communicate with airport ground staff. Of course, that's assuming you know what these "ticket gates" are and how to use them!