Planes

Munich’s Franz Joseph Strauss Airport lies 40km north of the city centre. As a major hub for global flights, it is not surprisingly a huge complex.

There are six terminals with a central area called terminal Z. In general, each of the terminals on the ground floor has check-in desks, ticket counters, information booths, phones, cafés and shops and exits to parking lots, airport buses and taxis. Below all of this, is the heart of the airport with toilets, showers, more cafés, lost luggage (tel. +49 89 97 52 13 70) and kilometres of people movers. Follow signs for München Airport Centre to find all the essentials. At the 24hr Service Centre you can leave luggage (from €3.50/24hrs), surf the internet and buy phone cards, public transport tickets and the Welcome Card.

Although the airport is far from Munich, getting to town couldn’t be simpler. The cheapest and easiest way to the city is to take S-Bahn line S1 or S8, departing up to six times per hour between 04:00 and 01:30 from underneath the Central Area. Buy tickets (single €9.90, children €1.20, or get a €10 dayticket) from the counter or automats and validate them before descending to the tracks. Alternatively, take the airport bus (www.airportbus-muenchen.de) to the main train station; it departs every 20 minutes between 06:20-21:40. The trip takes 40 minutes and costs €10.50 (children €5.50). For direct transport to the Munich fairgrounds take the shuttle (between 08:35 - 18:05) for €8.
The wide-open Munich Airport Center (MAC) is a sibling of the Sony Center in Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz: both were sired by architect Helmut Jahn. Unlike the Sony Center’s crowning Mount Fuji formation, here material is stretched tautly overhead like a school of seven stingrays. Practical services fill MAC which borders both Terminals 1 and 2.