By Michael Sauerbier
Desperate vacationers, missed flights to start the holidays. The pictures from Cologne and Düsseldorf give reason to fear the worst. Is chaos threatening next week at Berlin Pannen-Airport BER?
Business is still reasonably normal in Schönefeld: the rush in the departure hall was limited on Monday, the queues in front of the security checkpoints were manageable. BUT: The summer holidays in Berlin and Brandenburg start next Thursday.
And many have already packed their suitcases on the last day of school. How will it be then at Germany’s most notorious airport?
A woman with a sun hat looks at the departures at BER Photo: dpa
“Hardly different from last weekend,” claims BER spokesman Jan-Peter Haack (38), “we had 208,000 passengers and stable operations. Although the ILA Air Show was taking place at the same time. We are expecting 220,000 passengers from July 8th to 10th.” Hardly more than now.
The reason: Many vacationers who are independent of the school holidays leave earlier.
But the rush will be twice as big as at the start of the 2021 holiday season.
BER has taken precautions
► Terminal 2 opened in the spring
► There and in the main terminal there are 118 check-in machines. They spit out plane tickets and luggage tags, saving you the trip to the airline counter
99 self-check-in machines in Terminal 1 and 19 in Terminal 2 issue tickets and luggage tags. The way to the switch is thus superfluous Photo: Christian Lohse
► The eight most important of the 17 broken treadmills have finally been repaired
► In order to shorten the waiting time at the security check, there is now a preparation area: Bottles or nail files can be sorted out there in good time
New at BER: In the preparation area, travelers should take prohibited items such as bottles from their hand luggage. This saves time and trouble at the security check. In addition, there is now more waiting space in the departure hall Photo: Christian Lohse
Nevertheless, the airport warns: “At peak times there may be longer waiting times than outside the holiday season.”
The federal police remain calm. “We’re well staffed, don’t have as big a problem as some other airports,” says spokeswoman Christina Weigandt (31), “we requested more security forces for the start of the holiday season.”
Display boards point the way to the quickest security check. You should be there 60 minutes before boarding starts Photo: Christian Lohse
The airlines remain the biggest risk for holidaymakers. Due to a lack of staff, they canceled 20 of 460 flights at BER at short notice on Monday!
