Comment: BER - is there a risk of chaos like last year?

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Terminal 2 (Photo: Anikka Bauer/Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH).
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Terminal 2 (Photo: Anikka Bauer/Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH).

Comment: BER - is there a risk of chaos like last year?

Berlin-Brandenburg Airport Terminal 2 (Photo: Anikka Bauer/Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH).
Advertising

Long waiting times, missed flights, complaining passengers - where is the learning effect at the capital's airport?

It's Thursday evening, a normal May evening, no holidays in Berlin, nothing special, when my phone lights up. "You won't believe it, I've been standing at the security checkpoint for ages and they're still closing checkpoints here." The "end of the song" followed less than 20 minutes later, "boarding is over, I can't keep up".

14 hours later, Friday morning, 9 a.m., a normal Friday in May. The terminal is packed, as are the check-in counters, but the question I have to ask myself is what all the people are queuing for across Terminal 1.

A quick look around the corner, shock. They are the fellow passengers who are waiting in line before the boarding card check before security check 4. There is a seamless transition to "Priority" control point 3. A quick glance at the monitors reveals that all control points are working at maximum capacity.

I look at the homepage of the airport BER - there it is easy to do. The waiting time is only given in 3 categories:

  1. about <10 minutes
  2. about 10-20 minutes
  3. approx. > 20 minutes

All control points are of course >20 minutes. I have a suitcase with me and actually have to queue for the check-in. For a brief moment I think about walking back to the parking garage and flying without a suitcase.

But the shock persists, WHAT'S GOING ON??? - A reminder AGAIN: It's a normal Friday morning IN MAY, no public holiday, no bridging day, no vacation - nothing. The headlines of the past year immediately come to mind.

Frustration arises: Have you really learned nothing or only so little from it? Does that repeat itself Whole thing from the previous year again? A few days before the loss of the "BER" was announced to the public, weeks and months before the call for help to dizzying heights of more public money.

WHERE are the employees who redistribute passengers? To Terminal 2? In order not to let the scenes of the previous year come up again?! An echoing announcement from the tape brings absolutely nothing! Passengers from all over the world need contact persons of flesh and blood. There are still almost exactly 8 weeks until the summer holidays, 8 weeks that the airport operators MUST use NOW to prevent renewed chaos WITH ANNOUNCEMENT!

Summer hasn't even started yet, but the coming weeks should be hot in the executive suites of "BER", the credo should be "all hands on deck" under all circumstances, this Friday was already a foretaste. Waiting times at security are normal, as is the general post-pandemic problem of finding enough staff after many people have fled aviation, but when there is a sense of letting things flow freely, something is seriously wrong. Or as the saying goes in a legendary German song, "I think it's starting again"...

Banner at Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (Photo: Steffen Lorenz).

3 Comments

  • Sven Janca-Stahl, 6. May 2022 @ 11: 52

    Sorry I can't share your experience at all. On the contrary, even if I only fly 1-2 times a month. Check-in is great with AirFrance, Iberia and Easyjet. The self check-in shortens it and even at peak times I only waited a maximum of 20 - even when the checkpoint was closed4. Anyone who says it would be better somewhere else is lying.
    It was neither better in Tegel, nor is it much more pleasant in Frankfurt or Munich.
    So I can't help but get the impression that people want to deliberately denigrate the airport.
    So I can only laugh because I am very satisfied as both a resident and a passenger.
    Maybe they just come to the airport sooner and do without domestic German flights to Muc, Fra, Dus or Str.

  • Hotshot, 6. May 2022 @ 14: 24

    The fact is and remains that the responsible managers only meet self-imposed and powerfully remunerated savings targets, no reasonable person would work for the starvation wages offered in security and ground services and those who do it permanently only face hostilities and threats from the "customers" exposed, and when it all ends in chaos, the managers resign and hire the next government agency and are NEVER held accountable for their mismanagement with appropriate prison terms. The whole system is just sick.
    And why? Because the whole stupid industry allows you to be paraded by Mr. O'Leary. And instead of showing MOL the red card and passengers finally stopping buying tickets from this Cerberus, he keeps buying more planes and finding more and more people who want to work for him. And shortly after starting work, they complain in all media about the terrible working conditions.

  • Albatross M , 7. May 2022 @ 01: 04

    Dear Mr. Janca-Stahl,

    Comparing BER with Munich is a testament to imagination, I have to give you that.

    To deny that BER is far from functioning smoothly would even qualify you for a senior management position, respect!

    There is a lack of space, staff and redundancy, which is also confirmed by expert opinions in addition to the everyday performance, as described by the author. Short-term workarounds, such as the carting of handling staff from Finland, will not work in the long term and unfortunately this will become clear by summer at the latest. I'm glad that I can easily take the train to my employer in Frankfurt and don't need the BER.

    Best regards.

Leave a Comment

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked with * marked

This website uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn more about how your comment data is processed.

Editor of this article:

Steffen Lorenz was a flight attendant at various airlines for several decades and has been part of the Aviation.Direct editorial team since October 2021 in the areas of product tests and trip reports.
[ssba buttons]

Nobody likes paywalls
- not even Aviation.Direct!

Information should be free for everyone, but good journalism costs a lot of money.

If you enjoyed this article, you can check Aviation.Direct voluntary for a cup of coffee Coffee trail (for them it's free to use).

In doing so, you support the journalistic work of our independent specialist portal for aviation, travel and tourism with a focus on the DA-CH region voluntarily without a paywall requirement.

If you did not like the article, we look forward to your constructive criticism and / or your suggestions for improvement, either directly to the editor or to the team at with this link or alternatively via the comments.

Your
Aviation.Direct team
paywalls
nobody likes!

About the editor

Steffen Lorenz was a flight attendant at various airlines for several decades and has been part of the Aviation.Direct editorial team since October 2021 in the areas of product tests and trip reports.
[ssba buttons]

Nobody likes paywalls
- not even Aviation.Direct!

Information should be free for everyone, but good journalism costs a lot of money.

If you enjoyed this article, you can check Aviation.Direct voluntary for a cup of coffee Coffee trail (for them it's free to use).

In doing so, you support the journalistic work of our independent specialist portal for aviation, travel and tourism with a focus on the DA-CH region voluntarily without a paywall requirement.

If you did not like the article, we look forward to your constructive criticism and / or your suggestions for improvement, either directly to the editor or to the team at with this link or alternatively via the comments.

Your
Aviation.Direct team
paywalls
nobody likes!

3 Comments

  • Sven Janca-Stahl, 6. May 2022 @ 11: 52

    Sorry I can't share your experience at all. On the contrary, even if I only fly 1-2 times a month. Check-in is great with AirFrance, Iberia and Easyjet. The self check-in shortens it and even at peak times I only waited a maximum of 20 - even when the checkpoint was closed4. Anyone who says it would be better somewhere else is lying.
    It was neither better in Tegel, nor is it much more pleasant in Frankfurt or Munich.
    So I can't help but get the impression that people want to deliberately denigrate the airport.
    So I can only laugh because I am very satisfied as both a resident and a passenger.
    Maybe they just come to the airport sooner and do without domestic German flights to Muc, Fra, Dus or Str.

  • Hotshot, 6. May 2022 @ 14: 24

    The fact is and remains that the responsible managers only meet self-imposed and powerfully remunerated savings targets, no reasonable person would work for the starvation wages offered in security and ground services and those who do it permanently only face hostilities and threats from the "customers" exposed, and when it all ends in chaos, the managers resign and hire the next government agency and are NEVER held accountable for their mismanagement with appropriate prison terms. The whole system is just sick.
    And why? Because the whole stupid industry allows you to be paraded by Mr. O'Leary. And instead of showing MOL the red card and passengers finally stopping buying tickets from this Cerberus, he keeps buying more planes and finding more and more people who want to work for him. And shortly after starting work, they complain in all media about the terrible working conditions.

  • Albatross M , 7. May 2022 @ 01: 04

    Dear Mr. Janca-Stahl,

    Comparing BER with Munich is a testament to imagination, I have to give you that.

    To deny that BER is far from functioning smoothly would even qualify you for a senior management position, respect!

    There is a lack of space, staff and redundancy, which is also confirmed by expert opinions in addition to the everyday performance, as described by the author. Short-term workarounds, such as the carting of handling staff from Finland, will not work in the long term and unfortunately this will become clear by summer at the latest. I'm glad that I can easily take the train to my employer in Frankfurt and don't need the BER.

    Best regards.

Leave a Comment

Your e-mail address will not be published. Required fields are marked with * marked

This website uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn more about how your comment data is processed.

Advertising