Despite the difficult conditions under the global corona pandemic, the airport company is satisfied with the start of Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt. 

On October 31, 2020 the time had finally come: with a delay of nine years, Berlin's major airport (finally) opened. More than 100 days have passed since then. So enough to come to the conclusion: it didn't even go that bad. Because the new airport and its infrastructure have shown themselves to be efficient and reliable, they say. The technical systems and the handling processes seem to have worked well even under winter conditions with snow and ice. Smaller disruptions in the processes cannot be prevented in such large-scale projects, and any inconveniences can be resolved quickly. The new Terminal 1 is also well received by travelers and visitors, and feedback on equipment, service and cleanliness has been consistently positive. 

It's also worth taking a look at the traffic numbers. These are developing very slowly, but that is by no means against the airport. Because of the current situation, this is the case almost everywhere. As a result, BER only counted around 700.000 passengers in the first three months. That would be just about ten percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019. There was a small highlight in the pre-Christmas travel. On December 18, 2020, almost 20.000 passengers took off or landed. At the start of the new year, the number of passengers dropped again drastically due to the tightened lockdown and global travel restrictions. Currently, an average of only 4.000 to 8.000 passengers are handled at BER each day. Due to the low flight activity, Terminal 5 will also be temporarily closed from February 23rd. The first airlines have already moved to Terminal 1. 

“I would like to thank all employees of the airport company and our partners for the successful start of Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt. We would have liked to be able to convince significantly more passengers of our modern, international standard, because BER is fully operational. Instead, the industry has been hard hit by the global corona pandemic and is constantly having to cope with new setbacks. Nevertheless, we are convinced that BER will play an important role in the recovery of the economy in the capital region, ”said Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH.