Airport Berlin Brandenburg

Location
Berlin Brandenburg Airport is located about 20 km from the center of Berlin in Schönefeld/Brandenburg, southeast of the city of Berlin.

The airport is easy to reach by car using the airport exit on the A113 highway as well as being connected to the B96.

Passengers arriving by train also have a direct connection to the airport. The stations "Terminal 1-2" and "Terminal 5" are located under the new building and connected to the Airport Express FEX, regional trains RE7, RB14 and RB22, and S-Bahn (city trains) S9 and S45. There are also a number of express and other local bus services operated by the local public transport provider, BVG.

Passengers with longer stopovers at the airport will find a number of hotels and pensions on the airport grounds – one of these is the newly constructed Steigenberger Hotel in the Airport City, close to the airport terminal.


 

History
Berlin Brandenburg Airport was due to be opened and become Berlin's only airport back in October 2007. However, the inauguration was postponed several times due to a number of planning errors, amongst these fire safety and emergency issues.

Original plans to use the IATA code BBI (for Berlin Brandenburg International) also had to be dropped because, due delays in opening the airport, this code was then already in use for the Indian airport Bhubaneshwar.

During the building time, the immense construction site was the largest airport building site in Europe. The planned opening date in October 2011 was postponed as a result of delays in completing the interior of the airport building.

The initial ceremony at the start of construction was held in September 2006 by the former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, Brandenburg`s president Matthias Platzeck, the former director of the Deutsche Bahn AG Hartmut Mehdorn, as well as the former Minister of Transport, Building and Urban Development, Wolfgang Tiefensee.

The airport is situated on an area of 1470 hectares (equivalent to around 2000 football fields) and is estimated to have cost more than seven billion euros to construct.

As a result of growing passenger numbers at Berlin's airports in recent years, last around 22 million passengers per year, and ensuing capacity problems especially at Berlin Tegel airport, the need to rethink Berlin's airport infrastructure became unavoidable, in particular if predictions of further growth are to be believed.

The capital city's airport is designed to handle up to 46 million passengers a year. However, since construction plans were developed on a modular basis from the outset, there is a possibility of gradually increasing the new terminal`s capacity to allow for 58 million passengers annually.

According to current plans, Terminal 1 alone can handle approx. 6500 passengers per hour at peak times.

Terminal buildings 1 and 2 are located in the centre of of two parallel runways. The so-called "northern runway" was extended from 3000 to 3600 metres after completing the expansion project. The newly constructed "southern runway", on the other hand, has a length of 4000 metres. This means that even an Airbus A380, known as the "superjumbo", can take off and land in Berlin.

The airport railway station, which was also completely rebuilt, provides time-saving connections to central Berlin and the surrounding area. Two of the platforms are intended for regional and long-distance traffic and one for the Berlin S-Bahn (city trains). The S-Bahn will take only about 20 minutes to cover the 20km from the airport to the city centre. The airport also has its own motorway exit to the A113 and is connected directly to the B96a main road below the terminal building.

About 10,000 short and long-term parking spaces. At Terminals 1 and 2, these are divided into five modern multi-storey car parks and three ground-level car parks. At Terminal 5, one car park and three outdoor car parks. Free short-term parking spaces for pick-ups and drop-offs are available at both Terminal 1/2 and Terminal 5.