The Supervisory Board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH (FBB) unanimously elected Werner Gatzer as its new Chairman at its meeting on July 3, 2026. The 67-year-old lawyer and former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance assumes the position with immediate effect.
Gatzer, who currently also chairs the supervisory board of Deutsche Bahn AG, was nominated and appointed at the suggestion of the shareholder, the state of Brandenburg. He succeeds Jörg Simon, whose term as representative of the state of Berlin ended in June. Holger Rößler, a ver.di union secretary, remains deputy chairman of the board.
With the appointment of Gatzer, an experienced budget and infrastructure expert returns to the helm of Berlin's airport. Gatzer was already involved with the financial and structural problems of the major BER project in his previous role as a federal official. Industry observers point out that his appointment comes at a time when the airport company is seeking financial consolidation following the severe economic downturns of recent years and its high debt levels. With this proposal, the state of Brandenburg is prioritizing administrative continuity and fiscal expertise in overseeing the state-owned airline.
However, critics from politics and business point out that Gatzer's multiple roles, including simultaneously chairing the supervisory board of the crisis-ridden Deutsche Bahn, entail considerable time and operational demands. Both state-owned companies face profound infrastructural challenges and financial restructuring pressures. For Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), the focus in the coming years will be on addressing the investment backlog, optimizing passenger handling, and securing long-term liquidity without ongoing state subsidies from the states of Berlin and Brandenburg and the federal government.
The new appointment also reflects the complex political balance between the participating federal states. While the state of Berlin relinquishes the chairmanship with the departure of Jörg Simon, Brandenburg, as agreed, assumes the leadership of the supervisory board. Future cooperation between the management under Aletta von Massenbach and the newly formed supervisory board will primarily be measured by the implementation of key performance indicators and the stabilization of flight operations within the dense European air traffic network.