After nine years of waiting, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) was officially inaugurated. The new Terminal 1 of Berlin Brandenburg Airport "Willy Brandt" was opened with landing of the first two aircraft operated by easyJet and Lufthansa.
Upon arrival, passengers, including easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren and Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr, were greeted in Terminal 1 by the airport's head, Engelbert Lütke Daldrup.
The symbolic act of opening took place in a small circle. The Minister of State of Brandenburg, Dietmar Woidke, the Mayor of Berlin, Michael Müller, the Federal Minister of Transport and Digital Infrastructure, Andreas Scheuer MdB, and the President of the Supervisory Board of the Airport Company, Rainer Bretschneider, also participated.
The first flight took off on November 1 for London Gatwick
The first commercial flights arrived at Terminal 1 on October 31, while the first take-off of an easyJet aircraft took place on the morning of November 1, at 06:45 local time, bound for London Gatwick.
In the first day alone, a number of 23 flights took off from the new airport, in addition to the many easyJet connections to destinations in Europe.
More than 3000 passengers were reported on the first day at the new airport
More than 3000 passengers passed through the new airport in Berlin on the first day of operations. Also on November 1, the first departures of Qatar Airways to Doha and Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, from Terminal 1, took place.
The airlines Eurowings and Vueling will move to the BER 1 terminal on November 4, 2020. Lufthansa with Austrian, Swiss and Brussels Airlines, will transfer from Tegel Airport on November 8.
The airport is connected to the city by an excellent infrastructure, with direct access to the highway. In addition, a new six-platform railway station has been built under Terminal 1, connecting the entire Berlin railway network. It is estimated that two-thirds of all passengers will arrive at the airport by train.
Numerous bus lines connect the airport to the capital and the metropolitan area of Berlin at frequent intervals.
The airport covers a total area of 1.470 hectares, the equivalent of 2.000 football fields. Terminals 1 and 2 are located between the two parallel tracks. Terminal 5, which is the former Schönefeld Airport, is located in the northern area.
In addition to the northern runway, which has been the main runway used so far, flights will also be operated from the southern runway from 4 November.
The new airport concentrates all air traffic in the German capital region. The total capacity is over 40 million passengers per year, 25 million passengers being directed to Terminal 1 alone.
It is forecast that Berlin International Airport will have the largest passenger flow in all of Germany.