Willie Brandt Berlin Brandenburg Airport

No airport has had a longer gestation than Willie Brandt Berlin Brandenburg (BER), first approved in May 1996 but the real record has been set with the opening on 25 January this year of the adjoining IntercityHotel, 12 years after it was completed.  

Conceived to replace the existing former French air force base at Tegel, and Berlin’s historic Tempelhof, the plan was to develop a new 21st century airport entry to the German capital by expanding the existing Schönefeld gateway in the former East Berlin.  

Construction began in 2006 and the renamed airport finally opened with an easyJet flight on 31 October 2020.  This was some 14 years after construction started and 29 years later than the official planning had begun. The total cost of the project has been reported as €7.3bn against the original estimate at €2bn.

With the effect of Covid the Schönefeld terminal has permanently closed.  All operations are now consolidated into the new Terminal 1, with the exception of the low-cost carriers, predominantly Ryanair, in Terminal 2, a 200m mainly uncovered landside walk away, and rather like the carriers it handles, somewhat basic.  For connecting passengers an airside covered walkway is provided.  

BER is now a two-parallel-runway airport, the existing 07L/25R to the south and now lengthened to 3,600m, and to the north, and the other side of the new terminals, a 4000m strip.    

The airport is all that one would expect from a modern European terminal, with plenty of walking and both Schengen and non-Schengen areas, the later very easily accessible from the fine Tempelhof executive lounge used by British Airways and oneworld amongst others.  Whilst BA offers an airbridge, even for the CityFlyer Embraer, easyJet, the airport’s largest operator, economises with buses.  Within the security area is The Market Place 9,000sq m of retail outlets, and a Food Court.

The airport railway station is situated directly below Terminal 1 with very easy lift access and frequent services to both Berlin central and regional points. The fare for the 30-minute ride to the central station is just €3.80 but just to confuse matters the local trains also stop at Schönefeld, which is called T5, and has no flights.

BER has two convenient adjoining hotels, next door to each other, the Steinberger, 4-star, 320 rooms, opened at the same time as T1, and a sister property, six-storey 3-star IntercityHotel with 360 rooms, five meeting and conference rooms, a sauna and fitness area, as well as a restaurant and hotel bar. What is astonishing about this hotel is that it was completed 12 years ago and never opened with the airport not ready, and then Covid.  At around €100 per room per night, bed and breakfast, it also offers a free return ticket to Berlin Central station.  

Also new at the airport is an easyJet purpose-built 10,000 sq m, four-bay hangar facility designed to look after the airlines’ European, Austrian-registered, fleet comprising of 135 aircraft.  The project was supported by the Wirtschaftsförderung (business promotion) Brandenburg as well as easyJet's chosen partner, MRO Facilities, who managed the design and construction to deliver market leading operational performance.

https://ber.berlin-airport.de

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