After years of planning, Berlin’s new airport ushers in a new era for all those looking to access Germany’s capital air transport market.
Saturday 31 October 2020 was the day the new Terminal 1 at Willy Brandt Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) opened, the culmination of a lengthy project to deliver a new airport to Germany’s capital. Within minutes of BER being open, the first two landings took place featuring aircraft operated by easyJet and Lufthansa.
The airport covers a total area of 1,470 hectares, with Terminals 1 and 2 located between the two parallel runways, which can be operated independently. Terminal 5, formerly known as Schönefeld Airport (SXF) is situated in the northern area of the new facility.
This is in addition to the northern runway, which was previously the airport’s main runway. Flights from the southern runway began on 4 November.
The new airport pulls together all of Berlin’s air traffic at one location with a total capacity of over 40 million passengers per year. Around 25 million passengers can be handled at Terminal 1.
Meanwhile, on Sunday 8 November, the last ever flight to depart from Berlin Tegel (TXL) was operated by an Air France A320-200 flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. The plan is for TXL to be kept in operating condition for a further six months from the date of BER’s commissioning, although no more flights are scheduled to take place.
