October 31 marks the first birthday of Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt, the long-awaited airport that finally opened after 14 years of construction and 29 years of planning.
BER’s first year of operation has shown the capital’s brand new airport is fully functioning: a total of eight million passengers used the new Terminal 1, despite the many restrictions of the pandemic. No less than 74 airlines took off to more than 160 destinations in 53 countries, with almost 24,400 tons of freight passed through the airport.
In its first year of operation, the airport saw only one long-haul connection to Doha via Qatar Airways, mainly due to the pandemic. However, Scoot, the subsidiary of Singapore Airlines, has now resumed direct services from Berlin to Singapore; and United Airlines will also start flights from BER to NYC and Washington DC in the coming year.
“So far, we still can’t say we’ve experienced a single day of normalcy at BER since the start of the pandemic. Nevertheless, the past twelve months have shown that BER possesses fully functional infrastructure,” says Aletta von Massenbach, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH.
“Managing the movement of eight million passengers under the restrictions of the pandemic was a Herculean task, and we would like to thank everyone who helps keep the airport running. Now it’s up to us to keep on improving passenger processes and adapting BER to rising passenger numbers. I am particularly pleased that the number of long-haul connections from BER is growing again. The growing interest of the airlines in including BER in their flight schedules shows that the capital region remains an attractive destination.”
