Well, it has finally happened. If there’s one good thing to come out of 2020, it’s Berlin’s long-awaited new airport opening. You can read my full review of the new airport here.
In this post:
Berlin’s new airport is finally operational
This past weekend the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (which uses the code “BER”) finally opened, nearly a decade behind schedule. While we’ve known for a few months that this was the plan, I’m sure I’m not alone in my skepticism of the timeline.
Until the first flights landed and took off, I wasn’t convinced it was actually going to happen, given that the opening date had been postponed 10 different times.
On Saturday, October 31, 2020, the first two flights landed at Brandenburg Airport:
- A Lufthansa A320neo arrived from Munich
- An EasyJet A320neo arrived from London Gatwick
Initially the planes were supposed to do parallel landings, but that didn’t end up happening due to weather. However, the planes did end up taxiing to the terminal around the same time, at which point there was a water salute.
As you can see, the Lufthansa A320neo that operated the first Lufthansa arrival even had a special livery. The plane had “Haupstadtflieger” (which means “capital city flyer” in German) written in place of Lufthansa. The plane also has the new airport code written towards the back of the plane.
Lufthansa’s special livery dedicated to BER
The CEOs of EasyJet and Lufthansa were on their respective planes. The entire ceremony surrounding this was kind of funny to watch, as the CEOs exited the jet bridges at the same time, and waved at one another.
The first flight out of Brandenburg Airport was at 6:45AM on Sunday, November 1, 2020. The first flight to take off was also the first flight to land the previous day — an EasyJet A320neo, returning to London Gatwick. Hopefully the takeoff wasn’t too scary. 😉
The first flight to depart Berlin Brandenburg
What happens to Berlin’s other airports?
Prior to the opening of Brandenburg, Berlin had two airports — Tegel (TXL) and Schönefeld (SXF).
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
What happens to these two airports now that Brandenburg is open?
- Tegel will close on November 8; not all airlines have switched operations yet, as Lufthansa is operating most of its flights out of Tegel until then
- Schönefeld and Brandenburg are actually kind of the same airport, as Brandenburg is just a new runway and terminal for the existing Schönefeld Airport
- Therefore Schönefeld Airport will continue to exist, but will just be renamed — the new Brandenburg Airport is now known as Brandenburg Terminal 1 & 2, while Schönefeld is now known as Brandenburg Terminal 5
The distance between the terminals at Brandenburg Airport
Construction of Brandenburg Airport was a disaster
Some people may be wondering “why is it so surprising that the airport actually opened?” Well, I can’t think of another airport in the world that has had as disastrous of a construction process as this new airport:
- Construction on the airport started back in 2006
- The airport was initially supposed to open in March 2011, but ended up opening in October 2020, so it was nearly 10 years behind schedule
- The airport was supposed to cost €2.83 billion, but has cost around €7 billion in the end
What all went wrong? This post has a detailed rundown of everything that has happened, though to summarize:
- In mid 2010 the construction company behind the airport went bankrupt, delaying the project
- In mid 2012 huge issues were discovered with the smoke exhaust systems at the airport, delaying the opening (it was later discovered that bribes were involved here)
- In early 2013 there were management changes at the airport, given the management’s team inability to get things done
- In mid 2016 they had issues getting the transport certification needed to open
- In 2017 airberlin went out of business, raising concerns for the airport, as this was supposed to be the largest airline, making the owners rethink part of the design
Suffice to say that this isn’t the shining example of German efficiency.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
What’s the lounge situation at Brandenburg Airport?
What’s the lounge situation like at the new Brandenburg Airport?
- Lounge Tempelhof is already open, and is located by the A Gates in Terminal 1; the 910 square meter lounge has a capacity of 200 guests, and is accessible with Priority Pass
- Lounge Tegel is expected to open in spring 2021, and is located by the B Gates in Terminal 1; the 660 square meter lounge will have a capacity of 120 guests, and will be accessible with Priority Pass
- The Lufthansa Business & Senator Lounge is expected to open soon, though I’m not positive if it’s opening as of November 8, or a bit later
There’s talk of more lounges way down the road, including the possibility of a oneworld lounge. However, nothing has been formally announced yet.
Is Brandenburg Airport underwhelming?
I look forward to checking out Brandenburg Airport soon, but in the meantime I’ve enjoyed following along with the coverage from others.
Even with the construction delays, it sure seems like some elements of the airport aren’t well thought out.
Speaking of emergencies: There is no wall/door separating the regular staircase and the emergency exit further down. It looks terrible and can, due to a lack of signs, confuse people. pic.twitter.com/2xNicyeltX
— Jakob Wert (@SpieleWERT) October 31, 2020
There’s also something funny about a brand new airport having an elevator that was built in 2010.
The elevators at BER were built in 2010. #HelloBER pic.twitter.com/68FFzx8IYE
— Jakob Wert (@SpieleWERT) November 1, 2020
But the comment I’ve heard the most is that Brandenburg Airport doesn’t actually feel like a “big city” airport. An airport that took almost 15 years to construct and cost many billions of Euros is being described by some as an acceptable airport for a medium-size city.
I guess in general that gets at Berlin’s challenge:
- Berlin is by far Germany’s most populous city
- At the same time, Frankfurt and Munich are not only business hubs, but also hubs for air travel, despite having much smaller populations
- Back in the day airberlin was going to expand long haul flying out of Berlin, but ended up going out of business
- Even though Berlin is a major city, the airport has very few long haul flights, and I wouldn’t expect that to change all that much
Pre-pandemic, Berlin’s longest flights were a United flight to Newark, a Qatar Airways flight to Doha, a Hainan Airlines flight to Beijing, and a Scoot flight to Singapore. Even Emirates doesn’t fly to Berlin, due to the bilateral aviation agreement between the two countries.
The point is, Berlin’s airport will likely never live up to what you’d expect for what’s not only Germany’s capital, but also its most populous city.
Hainan Airlines used to fly to Berlin
Bottom line
After a nearly decade-long delay, Berlin Brandenburg Airport finally opened this past weekend. With this, we’ll see the closure of Tegel and the rebranding of Schönefeld, which will now be known as Brandenburg Terminal 5.
This is definitely a step in the right direction for aviation in Berlin, and I look forward to checking out Brandenburg myself. I’m not coming in with very high expectations, though, based on what I’ve seen and heard so far.
Are you as surprised as I am that Brandenburg Airport actually finally really opened?!
The airport has already old design which could be 17 or more years old. I never thought the BER would ever open, nevertheless it opened in the worst time possible.
TXL was really old and crappy but the location and short walking distances were fantastic. The new airport doesn't reflect the capacity and design what would the capital city need and deserve.
Let's see what happens...
Not going miss TXL, it was one of the oddest airports I've ever been to. I guess it might been convenient to build the terminals like that once upon a time, but it was clearly outdated 20 years ago and I can only imagine now. Not a fan of airports in Germany in general, as they're quite messy and hard to get around. That doesn't even take the surly staff into account or the fact...
Not going miss TXL, it was one of the oddest airports I've ever been to. I guess it might been convenient to build the terminals like that once upon a time, but it was clearly outdated 20 years ago and I can only imagine now. Not a fan of airports in Germany in general, as they're quite messy and hard to get around. That doesn't even take the surly staff into account or the fact that they can't tell the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim turban. The poor guy for frustrated and nearly shot for it...
Would love an update on the new (or eventual) train station in Stuttgart. Another "model" of German efficiency.
"This is definitely a step in the right direction for aviation in Berlin" - I am not sure how you come up with this. If BER were creating an international connecting hub, like FRA or MUC, then maybe you could justify the location. But no airline plans to hub here, and the terminal doesn't have the capacity to be a hub.
As the local airport with lots of flights to hubs, the BER location...
"This is definitely a step in the right direction for aviation in Berlin" - I am not sure how you come up with this. If BER were creating an international connecting hub, like FRA or MUC, then maybe you could justify the location. But no airline plans to hub here, and the terminal doesn't have the capacity to be a hub.
As the local airport with lots of flights to hubs, the BER location is inferior to TXL for virtually everyone. TXL was well located and had adequate capacity, even if it had an outdated terminal. BER is located so far away that it adds 30 minutes travel time for everyone. Even the fast train isn't very fast or direct and only runs every 30 minutes.
On the whole, the BER airport will shift more domestic travel onto DB, due to the extra time to get to/from town, and inconvenience everyone else.
The Scoot flight to Singapore was Berlin's longest flight before the pandemic.
@Juergen. Thank you. I must say you managed to crystallize the core problem (cheap politicians trying to do expensive projects cheaply) better for me than most commentary on this woeful airport. Had it been a mega terminal building like what you find in the M.E. or Asia, then delays would have quite understandable. But the fact that BER is 'only' a medium sized terminal at best, is why public anger at the skyrocketing cost and delay is so amplified.
How do we cope now without the phrase "we even finished X before BER opens"
Schönefeld was the East Berlin airport, right?
Eventually, a review of the airport would be nice, not just the lounge or the flight you take.
On the last LH flight out of TXL on a lufty 350. Booked in business, hopefully there will be some sort of event.
I’m on the last Lufthansa flight in and out of TXL on a 350. Booked in business, looking forward to the events (if there are going to be any).
Actually Easyjet also has a plane with a special livery which says "Berlin" with a Berlin bear on it. A lot cooler than LH's one. Idk if this plane was used as you can only see one side of the Easyjet airplane in the footage, and the special livery would be on the other side. Most Berlin people will hate on the airport, but i found it very pretty and also functional.
Radio Spätkauf has a podcast series called “How to f up an airport”. Very informative with a bunch of humour thrown in.
A couple of things why the airport was such an disaster to build: when the airport was planned Berlin and surrounding Brandenburg did not have the money to pay the constructing company at that time: Hochtief, a well known constructing company with a lot of expertise for such projects. At that time the major of Berlin and the President of Brandenburg stepped in and founded the airport company to build the airport themselves. They anticipated...
A couple of things why the airport was such an disaster to build: when the airport was planned Berlin and surrounding Brandenburg did not have the money to pay the constructing company at that time: Hochtief, a well known constructing company with a lot of expertise for such projects. At that time the major of Berlin and the President of Brandenburg stepped in and founded the airport company to build the airport themselves. They anticipated that the price will be lower and the construction would be beneficial to small businesses in both areas. This I think was the cardinal mistake, many inexperienced businesses ended up building tiny parts of the airport with no proper records on their work nor proper supervision. In 2012 the architect company was fired, and eventually most plans for the construction went missing with the dismissal. Overall it’s a lesson that politicians should not interfere in such projects, and sadly never were these decision makers held accountable for this disaster. I am just relieved that we have proved to the world that even in Germany things can get south very quickly.
The U2 flight actually came in from TXL. The first departure was indeed to LGW on the next day.
I am surprised you weren't on one of the first two flights!
Lounges:
Zeitgeist Lounge is the VVIP Lounge, away from public terminals.
About the Lufthansa lounges in general:
During November lockdown they remain open, but due to governmental requirements they cannot serve as restaurants; in other words: no food or drinks will be offered ;)
The UA flight to EWR is not and was not seasonal. It operated year-round pre-pandemic. Seasonally, the equipment was prone to change, going from a 767-300ER to a 767-400ER from Spring to Fall.