Exploring the new Berlin Airport!
Entrance to the main Terminal - Terminal 1
Welcome back to Brooke In The Air and this week as I prepare for my massive 12 day trip to Berlin, we’re going to explore onf of diropr’s newest airports: Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER). Let’s dive in!
Berlin Brandenburg Airport (German: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg or Willy Brandt international airport), (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB), is a new international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital and state of Berlin, within the state of Brandenburg. Named after the former West Berlin mayor and West German chancellor Willy Brandt, it is located 18 kilometres (11 mi or 35 minutes driving time) south-east of the city centre and serves as a base for Condor, EasyJet, Eurowings, Ryanair and Sundair.
- BER mostly has flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as a moderate number of intercontinental services.
INTRODUCTION
The new airport (BER) replaced Tempelhof, Schönefeld, and Tegel airports, and became the single commercial airport serving Berlin and the surrounding State of Brandenburg, an area with 6 million inhabitants. With projected annual passenger numbers of around 34 million, Berlin Brandenburg Airport has become the third busiest airport in Germany, after Frankfurt and Munich, surpassing Düsseldorf Airport and making it one of the fifteen busiest in Europe.
At the time of opening, the airport had a theoretical capacity of 46 million passengers per year. Terminal 1 accounts for 28 million of this; Terminal 2, which did not open until 24th of March in 2022, having been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, accounts for 6 million; and Terminal 5, the terminal buildings of the former Berlin-Schönefeld Airport, accounted for another 12 million when it was open to the public. Planned further expansion would bring the airport's total annual capacity to 58 million passengers by 2035.
The airport was originally planned to open in October 2011, five years after starting construction in 2006. The project encountered successive delays due to poor construction planning, execution, management, and corruption.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport finally received its operational license in May, 2020, and opened for commercial traffic on 31st of October, 2020, 14 years after construction started and 29 years after official planning was begun.
Schönefeld's refurbished passenger facilities were incorporated as Terminal 5 on 25 of October 2020 while all other airlines completed the transition from Tegel to Berlin Brandenburg Airport by 8 November of 2020.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and following German reunification in 1990, Berlin once again became the German federal capital; leaders made plans to recognise the city's increased importance by constructing a large commercial airport. The existing airports, Tegel Airport, Schönefeld Airport and Tempelhof Airport, were ageing and becoming increasingly congested with rising passenger numbers. To ensure the economic viability of the project, they pursued the single airport concept: the new airport would become the sole commercial airport for Berlin and Brandenburg. They planned to close Tegel, Schönefeld and Tempelhof upon opening the new airport, then ban commercial aviation from any other airport in Brandenburg.
On the 2nd of May,l 1991, the Berlin Brandenburg Flughafen Holding GmbH (BBF) was founded, owned by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg (37% each) and the Federal Republic of Germany (the remaining 26%). Eberhard Diepgen, Mayor of Berlin, became the first chairman of the supervisory board. The holding company announced on 20 June 1993 that Sperenberg Airfield, Jüterbog Airfield and the area south of Schönefeld Airport, where the evaluation of the locations Sperenberg, Jüterbog East, Jüterbog West, Tietzow, Michelsdorf, Borkheide and Schönefeld South was carried out according to five criteria with different weighting. Each site was advocated by various factions in the ensuing political discussion. With regard to land-use planning and noise pollution, rural Sperenberg and Jüterbog were considered more suitable for construction of a large airport. Economic considerations favoured an airport located near the city centre, with existing road and rail links (as is the case with Schönefeld).
On the 28th of May, 1996, Mayor Diepgen, Minister-President of Brandenburg, Manfred Stolpe, and Federal Minister for Transport Matthias Wissmann committed to Schönefeld as the site for the new airport. This so-called consensus decision was later affirmed by the respective state legislatures.
The new airport would use some infrastructure, such as a runway, from the existing Schönefeld Airport.
Privatization? Failed.
Originally, BBF anticipated that the new airport would be owned and operated by a private investor. They called for proposals, which led to two bidding consortia emerging as serious contenders. One was led by Hochtief through its Hochtief Airport subsidiary and included ABB, Fraport and Bankengesellschaft Berlin as partners.
The other consortium comprised IVG, Flughafen Wien AG, Dorsch-Consult, Commerzbank and Caisse des Dépôts. On 19 September 1998, BBF announced that the Hochtief consortium were the successful bidder. This saw them granted exclusive authority to negotiate the terms and conditions for an acquisition of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport holding and the construction and operation of the new airport for 50 years.
On the 31st of March, 1999, BBF officially commissioned Hochtief and its partners to construct the new airport, causing IVG to file a lawsuit.
The Brandenburg Oberlandesgericht acknowledged the concerns voiced by IVG. In its review, it found that in certain points the assessment of the applications had been biased towards Hochtief. This led to annulment of the contract award on the 3rd of August of that year.
Hochtief Airport and IVG teamed up and created a plan for a joint bid on 10 November 2000 in an attempt to receive the contract to construct and operate the new airport.
At the time BBF hoped that the planning approval could be completed in 2002, with the tentative opening in mid-2007.
When Hochtief/IVG submitted its bid in February of 2002, the BBF board consisted of Manfred Stolpe, who would become Federal Minister of Transportation; Klaus Wowereit, who replaced Eberhard Diepgen as Mayor of Berlin and chair of the board; and Matthias Platzeck, who replaced Stolpe as Minister-President of Brandenburg.
The board determined that the proposal would not be practical and voted on 22nd of May in 2003 to scrap the privatisation plan. Hochtief and IVG received approximately €50 million compensation for their planning effort then walked away.
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP
Land-grant map of BER Airport (DB = Deusche Bahn, train station)
The new Berlin airport would be planned, owned and operated by BBF Holding. Shortly afterwards BBF Holding became Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH (FBB) and remained under the ownership of Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government.
On 13th of August, 2004, the Brandenburg state ministry for infrastructure and regional policy granted approval for the development of Schönefeld Airport into the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport.
A legal battle ensued, as local residents filed lawsuits against the ministry's decision. The dispute ended on the 16th of March, 2006, when the Federal Administrative Court of Germany rejected the residents' arguments.
The court imposed stipulations on flight operations at the new airport. The construction permit was granted only under the condition that once operational, the number of people living in the approach path would be lower compared to the situation surrounding the three existing airports – Tegel, Schönefeld and Tempelhof.
Therefore, it was mandatory for Tegel and Schönefeld to close (Tempelhof was already decommissioned in 2008) once Berlin's air traffic was concentrated at the new airport.
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
It soon became clear by November of 2015 that the financial concept of the airport was fundamentally flawed. The main purpose of the many stores planned at the airport was to serve passengers who were changing planes, assuming that Berlin would be a big international hub.
It was acknowledged in 2015 that competition between the hubs was already too intense. Frankfurt Airport and London Heathrow would resist losing passenger shares without a price war and that few if any airlines would abandon their hubs for Berlin.
The only remaining potential airline for operating a hub was Air Berlin, which was in financial difficulties and did not plan to provide long-distance service.
Soundproofing of nearby homes would be €50 million more expensive because of a verdict of the main administrative courts of the states of Berlin and Brandenburg. On the 5th of May in 2016, the Federal Administrative Court decided in favour of 25,500 plaintiffs. The key directive of the verdict was that rooms must be provided with adequate ventilation if windows are closed for noise, and the airport authority must also determine how air inside the structures can be vented. The airport avoided liability claims against firms involved in the construction of the fire exhaust system.
Dropoff for departures at Terminal 1
By 2015, total costs amounted to €5.4 billion. Revised plans suggest additional costs amounting to an extra €2.19 billion. On the 3rd of June, 2015, Germany applied for a €2.5 billion spending approval from the EU, to be added to the previous total of €4.3 billion, bringing total costs to €6.8 billion. Financing for the entire airport appeared headed toward bankruptcy when the EU was unwilling to approve the pending request. If the request were to be denied, the airport authority stated it would be bankrupt by August, 2016. The EU would only permit an additional €2.2 billion, which it did on the 3rd of August in 2016. A €2.4 billion loan was signed on 13 February 2017 containing €1.1 billion for financing and €1.3 billion to resolve old bad loans. The German federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg guaranteed the debt. It was risky but they felt they had no choice.
Although the airport had yet to open, officials were already planning a possible third runway for approximately €1 billion, and other new projects, such as an additional terminal, expanded baggage system and another freight facility. The total additional spending would amount to €3.2 billion. Financially reckless, really.
Troubles continued. The airport company reportedly made the assurance to the European Investment Bank that the airport would open in September 2019. However, forecasts estimated the airport would not be ready to open until 2020. This would require an additional €500 million refinancing to bridge the gap between 2019 and 2020. The airport published a need for another billion euros up until 2020. Thus the three years of work from 2018 onwards would cost at least €900 million. The total cost of the airport will top €6.5 billion.
In January of 2018, the company requested an additional €2.8 billion for extensions until 2030. Taking that into account, the total cost came to €9.4 billion Euros, with a total of €10.3 billion if the €900 million in overhead costs for 2019–2020 were factored in. An economical estimate determined the costs for the overhead at a conservative figure of €770 million. The airport was planning to borrow €400 million.
Another issue arose when it became public that the airport head was earning an annual salary of €500,000. A new loan was granted by the German parliament on 30 June 2018 totalling €132 million.
With the other two owners, the states of Brandenburg and Berlin, permitting their shares of the loan as well, the loan would total €500 million. The board postponed a decision concerning the loan until the end of August 2018, which left the entire finance planning in jeopardy. At the end of August 2018, Berlin's head of finance, Matthias Kollatz, remarked that the airport may face abrupt bankruptcy on New Years Day of 2019 if no immediate measures were to be taken.
The financial head resigned from the holding company of Berlin's airports at the end of September 2019. According to projections the airport was in dire need of additional €508 million from 2021 onwards. Reports indicated another need for financial support from authorities for the next 2 years as of 29 April 2020 amounting to €1.8 billion.
A new study claimed that the net worth of the current building was far lower than the credited €4.866 billion and would be settled at €3 billion less. The financial gap due to the COVID-19 pandemic was estimated to be €300 million for Tegel and Schönefeld combined, thus the new airport would be in need for financial support for years to come.
The FY 2019 annual report from BER's operating firm was criticised by The Left as extremely short and not transparent. Cash flow concerns amounted to an immediate €1.5 billion by 20th of June in 2020.
NAMING CONTROVERSY
Willy Brandt himself
During much of the planning and construction phase the new airport was known as Berlin Brandenburg International Airport, abbreviated BBI.
It was then discovered that the IATA code BBI already referred to Biju Patnaik Airport (also known as Bhubaneswar Airport) in India. When the planned opening date of the 2nd of June, 2012 drew nearer the FBB launched a marketing campaign introducing the BER branding, reflecting the new airport code.
In 2007, the FBB board decided that Berlin Brandenburg Airport would be given a second name, honouring a person with a distinctive link to the city of Berlin. On 11 December 2009, the decision was made in favour of Willy Brandt. The Nobel Peace laureate of 1971 served as mayor of West Berlin from 1957 to 1966 and as West German chancellor from 1969 to 1974. Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit and Minister-President of Brandenburg Matthias Platzeck, both members of the SPD (which Brandt led from 1964 to 1987) led the effort to add Brandt's name to the airport.
As a result of the ongoing problems affecting the airport and the continuous negative publicity it got in the German and international press, the Willy Brandt Foundation considered revoking the airport's permission to bear the former chancellor's name.
This is due to concerns that an ongoing association might be considered disrespectful towards his legacy. However, no such measure has been taken so far as of 2024.
TERMINAL CONSTRUCTION
The U-shaped main terminal building of Berlin Brandenburg Airport, named Terminal 1 and consisting of sections A, B (01-25), C and D, was designed by gmp architects. They are the same company that designed the hexagonal Terminal A at Tegel Airport, which opened in 1974.
Official airport map - layout
Terminal 1
At BER, the terminal sits between the two runways, creating a so-called midfield airport above the underground train station. The terminal has four public levels, designated 0, 1, 2 and 3.
The check-in area is located in the public area at Level 1 and houses 118 counters organised in eight clusters, called check-in isles.
Planners anticipate that a significant number of passengers will use the more than 100 self check-in machines that will be installed.
Additionally, by May 2015, two extensions had been added to both sides of the main check-in area, containing 12 more check-in counters and eight security lanes each to avoid overcrowding of the main hall.
The airside area will be accessible only to ticketed and screened passengers.
Securitas Germany will staff the 35 screening stations.
BER is equipped with 25 jet bridges with another 85 aircraft stands on the apron.
The boarding and arrival areas are divided into three piers with the main pier 715 metres (2,350 ft) long, and the north and south piers at 350 metres (1,150 ft) each. The main pier contains 16 jet-bridges; all but one have two levels, thus, separating arriving and departing passengers. Level 1 is intended for Schengen Area passengers (gates A01–A20, B01–B20), while Level 2 (gates C01–C19, D01–D17) is for non-Schengen passengers.: 8–10 Eight of the gates can accommodate wide-body aircraft, and one gate has been designed to specifically accommodate the massive Airbus A380.
The apron has sufficient space to allow installation of a dual jetway allowing a quick boarding and disembarking process of any aircraft. A separate mezzanine (Level Z) at gates A21–22 and B21 allows for additional pre-boarding security checks for high-risk flights to the United States and Israel.
Lufthansa operates an airport lounge at the north end of the main pier (gate B20), which will also be open for passengers of the respective alliance partners.
A separate airport-operated lounge is located at the south end of the main pier (gate A20), which is contracted by most of the non-Star Alliance carriers operating from T1.
The south pier was reserved for near-exclusive use of defunct Air Berlin and its Oneworld partners. The south terminal contains nine single-storey jet bridges (gates A30–A38). The north pier features a more minimalist design compared to the other two piers. This is to meet the demands of low-cost carriers and has no jetbridges but boarding gates (B30–45) with direct apron access.
Major operators at Terminal 1 are the flag carrier Lufthansa Group plus their leisure carrier Condor, the and:
Aegean Airlines,
Air France,
KLM,
British Airways,
EasyJet
Turkish Airlines,
United Airlines
Qatar Airways, amongst others.
Inside the ticketing hall at T1 - BER
Terminal 2
Plans for a separate low-cost airline terminal costing €200 million were released in March 2016. Construction for the now-named Terminal 2 with section B (30–45) (which was originally constructed as part of Terminal 1) began in 2018 and finished in time in September 2020 to provide further capacity especially for low-cost carriers. Terminal 2 is constructed as a more basic-departures-and-arrivals facility next to the Terminal 1 main building, directly connected with its northern pier to gain more check-in capacity while sharing the same airside areas.
Originally Eurowings - Germany’s low-cost carrier, was supposed to operate their Berlin base out of Terminal 2 (T2). However, the COVID-19 pandemic kept the facility closed, as the capacity was not needed for the foreseeable future. Until then, all flights were handled in Terminal 1.
In November of 2021 it had been announced that Terminal 2 was planned to be opened by April of 2022 to relieve Terminal 1 as demand for aviation has picked up; thus, Terminal 1 had capacity issues.
Terminal 2 was opened on 24th of March, 2022, with Ryanair as the primary tenant, but in the same year in November, Wizz Air had also moved its operations to the new terminal, while the original intended user of the facility (Eurowings) remained in Terminal 1.
Terminal 2 remains primarily a low-cost carrier terminal.
Terminal 5
Terminal 5 is closed to the public now. T5 was made up of the former terminal facilities of old Berlin Schönefeld Airport, which were refurbished and renamed from sections A, B, C, and D, to K, L, Q, and M, respectively, to match the rest of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
In 2019, it was decided to leave the old facilities operational to provide more capacity for the expected passenger volume. The old tarmac at Schönefeld, which was refurbished and upgraded, was also used.
Terminal 5, which was located on the north side of the airport, was connected with the central areas of the airport (Terminals 1 and 2) solely landside by the S-Bahn and public transit buses between the new airport station and the old station that formerly served Schönefeld Airport.
Terminal 5 was scheduled to be operated until the inauguration of the planned Terminal 3 by the year 2030.
In November of 2020, it was announced that Terminal 5 would be shut down temporarily for low passenger volume in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, with all flights relocating to the main Terminal 1. The terminal was closed until further notice on 22 February 2021 and was, at the time of closure, not expected to reopen again and still officially has not.
In January 2021, a vaccination center had opened at Terminal 5 to administer COVID-19 vaccines. The vaccination center also remained open after the closure of the terminal to flights.
In March of 2022, Terminal 5 was converted into a makeshift shelter to house refugees fleeing Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s illegal invasion.
Officially, in November of 2022, the airport authority confirmed that Terminal 5 will remain closed permanently while airlines that previously operated from this terminal now operate from Terminal 2.
RUNWAYS
Berlin Brandenburg Airport has two parallel runways. With a spacing of 1,900 metres (6,200 ft), they allow simultaneous instrument approaches.
The northern runway of BER is the southern runway of the old Schönefeld Airport and has been in use since the 1960s. To adapt it for the new airport, it has been renovated and lengthened from 3,000 to 3,600 metres (9,800 to 12,000 ft). The newly built southern runway has a length of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) and was officially commissioned on 31 May 2012. Blackouts of the runway beacon of the southern runway led to investigations concerning air traffic safety.
BER covers 1,470 hectares (3,632 acres) of land.
On October 3, 2024, the two runways received new designations due to shifts in the Earth’s magnetic field.
Runway 07L/25R changed to 06L/24R, runway 07R/25L to 06R/24L.
ATC
jet bridges for T1 & T2
Deutsche Flugsicherung is responsible for air traffic control and apron control at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. At 72 metres (240 ft), the control tower is the third-highest in Germany (only surpassed by the control towers at Munich Airport and Düsseldorf Airport). On 25th of March in 2012, the new tower opened replacing the one at Schönefeld. Technical control (power supply and IT) went into operation on 16th of March, 2018.
CARGO & GEN. AV.
The initial module of the midfield cargo facilities has a capacity of 60 thousand tonnes (130 million pounds) of cargo per year.
With the completion of all planned expansions this could handle up to 600 thousand tonnes (1.3 billion pounds) per year.
The general aviation terminal is located in the northern part of BER.
MAINTENANCE
The two large hangars at BER were to be used by Lufthansa and Air Berlin respectively. However, Air Berlin have ceased operations as of 28 October 2017. Both provide enough space for maintenance work on four to five narrow-body aircraft but no wide-body aircraft are allowed to be worked on.
GOVERNMENT USE
The Executive Transport Wing of the German Defence Ministry (Flugbereitschaft), responsible for government flights, will move large parts of its operations to Berlin Brandenburg Airport from its still-current base at Cologne Bonn Airport near the former West German capital Bonn.
The government operates a fleet of Bombardier Global Express, Airbus A319, Airbus A321, Airbus A340-300 and Airbus A350-900 VIP-configured aircraft. However Cologne/Bonn will remain the home base of the government fleet for the time being.
The Institute for Federal Real Estate has been planning to construct a terminal on the northern edge of the airport for use by government officials and to welcome foreign dignitaries during state visits.
The former Terminal A of Schönefeld Airport was planned to serve as an interim terminal until the new building was to be finished.
However, in March 2016 the management of the airport terminated the contract with the German government that guaranteed usage of Terminal A of Schönefeld Airport upon the completion of BER for the area to be used for a different purpose. The termination was disputed between airport officials and the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure.
Early Berlin-Tegel Airport - 1960s
Mühlenfeld suggested a provisional ramp area west of Schönefeld's main terminal as a replacement solution and construction site for an interim government terminal at the end of February 2016.
This then supposed interim government terminal was finished at a cost of around €70 million Euros while the permanent government terminal was planned to begin operations around 2025, at a cost of additionally around €344 million, which left its completion in doubt. In December 2019, the German government cancelled all plans to construct a more representative facility until at least 2030.
The official government terminal was inaugurated and put in use on 21st of October in 2020, during the height of the pandemic.
Until its demise, Air Berlin had planned to move its primary hub from Tegel to Berlin Brandenburg.
As a member of the Oneworld airline alliance, Air Berlin required airport facilities capable of meeting the demands of its connecting passengers that Tegel could not provide.
However, Air Berlin filed for financial insolvency on 15th of August in 2017 and large parts of it were bought by Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline and flag carrier, ahead of Air Berlin's collapse on the 27th of that month. The airport leadership declared in September, 2017 that the bankruptcy of Air Berlin would have had no imminent impact on the expected traffic volume at the new airport as several of Air Berlin's routes had been taken over by many other airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, EasyJet was due to become the overall largest airline at the airport in terms of routes served, ahead of Ryanair. In May 2019, Ryanair announced that they would not move to the new facilities, and would keep using the old building at the side of Berlin Schönefeld Airport, which has now become part of Berlin Brandenburg Airport as its Terminal 5.
However, as of 2021, Ryanair remained in the new main building because Terminal 5 was closed for the foreseeable future. In 2022, Ryanair moved to Terminal 2.
Lufthansa does not use Berlin Brandenburg Airport as a hub. By 2011, they planned to greatly expand its presence in Berlin. At its former facilities at Tegel Airport the airline added several European destinations which have all since ceased or were turned over to Eurowings.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the airport's already sparse long-haul operations is still ongoing.
As of summer 2020, eight destinations in the US, Asia, and the Middle East were supposed to be served, but travel restrictions caused various connections to be terminated or not to be activated. Some routes, such as to Singapore with Scoot, have since resumed.
In 2021, the airport authority sought to establish 25 long-haul routes from Berlin by 2025 including negotiations for a revised bilateral agreement to allow Emirates to serve a fifth German city. United Airlines announced its return to Berlin with a service to Newark, which already had been served from Tegel, as well as a new route to Washington, D.C., in 2023.
In July, 2022, Delta Air Lines announced its 2023 return to Berlin with a service to New York–Kennedy, which it had last served from Tegel from 2017 to 2019. Currently this is a seasonal connection, listed only in the summer flight schedule.
It was planned to build a Terminal 3 (T3) next to Terminal 2 by 2029. This plan was delayed until at least 2028, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
