A third person has died from malaria following a cluster of cases linked to Frankfurt Airport, in what German officials have described as an extremely rare air-traffic-related outbreak of the tropical disease.

Frankfurt's city administration said on Thursday that the person died at a Frankfurt hospital. The deceased was one of two residents of the Schwanheim district, located in the immediate vicinity of the airport, who had recently been infected.

The two new cases in the neighbourhood had been reported on Tuesday.

"Both individuals had become infected with the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum, even though they had not travelled to a malaria-endemic region and had not worked at the airport," the city administration said in a statement.

According to the city's public health department, the two newly infected residents contracted the disease from a mosquito that had been flown into Germany on an aircraft or in luggage.

Six Frankfurt airport workers had contracted malaria tropica, the most dangerous form of the disease, in July, authorities said. Two of those workers later died.

Malaria is a potentially life-threatening mosquito-borne disease that is extremely rare in Germany. The malaria parasite is spread between humans by certain types of mosquitoes, but not through direct human-to-human contact.

Frankfurt Airport operator Fraport said it set up traps to catch mosquitoes and sent the insects to a laboratory in Antwerp, Belgium, in July and August. Results were not yet available.

Health authorities have warned doctors near the airport to consider malaria when treating patients presenting with a fever.

Airport workers and local residents have been urged to seek medical advice if they display symptoms including fever, chills, headaches, confusion, seizures, or breathing difficulties.

An airport spokesperson said local public health authorities had the power in principle to order airlines to disinfect aircraft.