Route brief · FRA → SHA
Frankfurt → Shanghai
$666
−10% vs typical
seasonal median $740 · difference $74
Nov 20 – Nov 25 · 5 nights
China Southern1 stop
- Usual monthly lows
- $694–$739
- Board rank
- Stronger than 20%
- Route sample
- 9 observed months
Cached fare — the booking search re-prices live before you pay.
Destination briefSHAShanghaiThe Bund on one bank, a science-fiction skyline on the other — and a visa-free transit window worth checking.Best windowMar–May · Sep–NovAirportsPudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)All routes into ShanghaiWhen this route gets cheap.
Cached-fare history: across 9 months, Nov is the cheapest for FRA → SHA. Best time to be there: Mar–May · Sep–Nov.
Fares on this route stay within about $76 across the 9 months we track — season matters less here than timing the drop. The cheapest itinerary we are tracking makes one stop and takes about 12.5 hours outbound, on a 5-night trip — ticketed under China Southern, which on a connecting fare need not operate every leg. At $666 for 8,830 km each way, that works out to about $38 per 1,000 km flown. That is below the $44 typical of long-haul fares here. Across the 23 departure cities we track at a similar distance from Shanghai, this fare ranks 20th — 38% above the $482 from Istanbul. That puts it in the cheaper half of the 36 routes of similar length we watch out of Frankfurt, where the middle fare is $730.
Cheapest day in the next 3 months: Sep 21 · $672 (19% below median)
Tap any day → live search
The median cached fare across this calendar is 1% lower than when tracking began on Aug 8 — $814 then versus $807 now, across 5 recorded snapshots. This is a calendar-level trend, so an individual deal above can be lower. The lowest single day we have seen here is $672, on Sep 21.
September 2026
Cheapest in Nov · around $666
10% below the $740 typical fare
Cheapest round-trip fare found per month · Frankfurt → Shanghai · cached-price history
Route facts
- Airports
- Frankfurt (FRA) · Hahn (HHN) ↔ Pudong (PVG) · Hongqiao (SHA)
- Flight time
- ~12.5 hours outbound
- Distance
- ~8,830 km each way
- Typical price
- $740 round-trip (seasonal median)
- Airlines on the board
- China Southern
- Itineraries
- Connections on current fares
- Best months to visit
- Mar–May · Sep–Nov
FRA → SHA, answered.
Is $666 a good price for Frankfurt to Shanghai?
Only slightly. The seasonal median is around $740 round-trip and this fare is 10% under it, about $74. We do not call a drop notable until 20%, so this is an ordinary price for the route rather than a reason to hurry.
What is the cheapest month to fly from Frankfurt to Shanghai?
Across 9 months of cached-fare history, Nov comes out cheapest on this route. The best months to actually be in Shanghai are Mar–May · Sep–Nov — when those overlap, that's your window.
How far in advance should I book FRA → Shanghai?
We do not publish a number for this, because we cannot measure it yet. Answering it honestly means watching the same departure date on this route over many weeks as it approaches, and that archive is still filling up — so any "book N days ahead" figure here would be borrowed from somewhere else rather than measured. What we can measure is which month is cheap: across 9 months of cached fares, Nov comes out lowest on this route. See /guides/what-moves-a-flight-price/ for what does move a fare.
Are there nonstop flights from Frankfurt to Shanghai?
The current cheapest fares involve a connection, ticketed under China Southern. Nonstop options exist on many dates at higher prices — check the live search for your exact dates.
Are these prices guaranteed?
No — these are cached fares found on real searches (this one on September 1). Airlines reprice constantly, so the booking search re-checks the live price before you pay. Fresher finds are far more likely to still be available.
Next step
Sleeping in Shanghai?
Lock the flight first — then compare stays for Nov 20 – Nov 25 · 5 nights.
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Missed it?
Cached fares expire. This route has a feed of its own — follow it and the next FRA → SHA drop reaches you as soon as we find it.
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