Berlin Brandenburg Airport

"Berlin Airport" redirects here. For the previous airports of Berlin, see Airports of Berlin. For the airport in New Hampshire, the United States, see Berlin Regional Airport.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport

Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg
Summary
Airport typePublic
Owner/OperatorFlughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH
ServesBerlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region
LocationSchönefeld, Brandenburg
Opened31 October 2020; 4 years ago (2020-10-31)[1][2]
Operating base for
Elevation AMSL48 m / 157 ft
Coordinates52°22′00″N 013°30′12″E / 52.36667°N 13.50333°E / 52.36667; 13.50333
Websiteber.berlin-airport.de
Maps
BER/EDDB is located in Germany
BER/EDDB
BER/EDDB
Location at the Berlin-Brandenburg border
BER/EDDB is located in Europe
BER/EDDB
BER/EDDB
BER/EDDB (Europe)
Map
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
06L/24R 3,600 11,811 Asphalt
06R/24L 4,000 13,123 Concrete
Statistics (2023)
Passenger volume23,071,865 Increase +16,3%
Aircraft movements00,176,649 Increase +7,5%
Cargo (metric tons)00,034,038 Increase +7,0%
Sources: [3][4]
Aerial view (2019)
Berlin Brandenburg Airport at night

Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (German: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg „Willy Brandt“), (IATA: BER, ICAO: EDDB), (German pronunciation: [beːʔeːˈʔɛɐ̯] ⓘ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the German capital and state of Berlin, in the state of Brandenburg.[5] Named after the former West Berlin mayor and West German chancellor Willy Brandt, it is located 18 kilometres (11 mi) south-east of the city centre and serves as a base for Condor, easyJet, Eurowings, Ryanair and Sundair. It mostly has flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as a number of intercontinental services.

The new airport 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,[6][7] Berlin Brandenburg Airport has become the third busiest airport in Germany, 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.[8] Terminal 1 accounts for 28 million of this; Terminal 2, which did not open until 24 March 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, accounts for another 12 million. Planned further expansion would bring the airport's total annual capacity to 58 million passengers by 2035.[9]

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,[2] and opened for commercial traffic on 31 October 2020, 14 years after construction started and 29 years after official planning was begun.[1] Schönefeld's refurbished passenger facilities were incorporated as Terminal 5 on 25 October 2020[10][11][12] while all other airlines completed the transition from Tegel to Berlin Brandenburg Airport by 8 November 2020.[13]

  1. ^ a b "BER: Luftfahrtbehörde erlaubt Inbetriebnahme am 31. Oktober" [BER: Aviation authority permits commissioning on 31 October]. Berliner Kurier (in German). 1 October 2020. Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b "BER soll am 31. Oktober 2020 öffnen". airliners.de (in German). 29 November 2019.
  3. ^ "Traffic statistics BER" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2024.
  4. ^ "23.07 million passengers travelled via Berlin Airport last year (+16%) – Steady passenger numbers in December". 8 January 2024. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  5. ^ Bowlby, Chris (29 June 2019). "The airport with half a million faults". BBC News.
  6. ^ Metzner, Thorsten (26 April 2016). "Ist selbst eine BER-Eröffnung im Jahr 2018 gefährdet?" [Is even a 2018 BER opening at risk?]. Der Tagesspiegel (in German).
  7. ^ Wicker, Günter (5 January 2019). "Am BER beginnt ein (weiteres) Jahr der Wahrheit" [A (further) year of truth begins at BER]. aero (in German). Retrieved 5 January 2019.
  8. ^ Fabricius, Michael (24 January 2020). "Die BER-Eröffnung lässt sich kaum noch verhindern" [The BER opening can hardly be prevented]. welt (in German). Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  9. ^ Kurpjuweit, Klaus (30 August 2017). "Flughafenchef Lütke Daldrup will neuen Starttermin für Flughafen nach dem 24. Dezember nennen" [Airport boss Lütke Daldrup wants to name a new start date for the airport after December 24th]. Tagesspiegel PNN (in German). Archived from the original on 13 March 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  10. ^ FBB; DMM (7 September 2020). "Berlin-Schönefeld ist am 25. Oktober 2020 Geschichte" [Berlin-Schoenefeld is history on October 25, 2020]. www.dmm.travel (in German). Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  11. ^ "Construction work at Schönefeld Airport: Upgrading of federal highway B96a, car park P4 closed". Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH. 15 April 2016. Archived from the original on 28 July 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
  12. ^ Fahrun, Joachim (3 July 2015). "Altes Terminal in Schönefeld bleibt nach BER-Start offen" [Old terminal in Schönefeld to remain open after BER start]. Berliner Morgenpost (in German). Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  13. ^ Nowack, Timo (1 October 2020). "Wann welche Airline zum BER wechselt". aeroTELEGRAPH (in Swiss High German). Retrieved 13 March 2023.