Five years of BER Airport: Profits, debts and the future in Brandenburg!

Five years of BER Airport: Profits, debts and the future in Brandenburg!

Five years after opening, Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) is showing positive development, but still has a long way to go before it can fully overcome the financial hurdles. Loud daily news The airport survived the initial crises and has been operating in the black since 2022. Despite this progress, the airport company FBB's debts to banks amounted to over 2 billion euros and 1.4 billion euros in liabilities to shareholders, while the loss in the business balance sheet was reduced from 2020 to 134 million euros in 2023.

The construction costs of the airport amount to an impressive 6.6 billion euros, which is three times as much as originally estimated. The opening took place in the middle of the corona pandemic at the end of October 2020, which made commissioning both difficult and strategically challenging. In order to bridge the corona crisis, loans totaling 1.7 billion euros were needed, borne by the shareholders - the state of Brandenburg, the state of Berlin and the federal government - with each having a different share: 37 percent Brandenburg, 37 percent Berlin and 26 percent the federal government.

Looking into the future

Finance Minister Crumbach is optimistic and believes in repayments to the shareholders from the 2030s. But in the short term, a further 660 million euros are on the agenda from the shareholders in 2026 to repay the loans. Two thousand people are employed directly at BER, and 22,000 new jobs were created in the surrounding area, which contribute significantly to the revitalization of the region.

However, the aspect of flight connections is interesting. Despite the positive passenger numbers, with 25.5 million passengers in 2024 and a daily record of over 100,000 passengers at the start of the autumn holidays, connections to international destinations are limited by a lack of direct flights. How Daily Mirror reports, the airport remains cut off from many interesting destinations, reducing demand. Part of this problem is attributed to the federal government, which is blamed for the lack of direct flights.

Aviation is changing

In an international comparison, air traffic in Germany shows some significant trends. Air traffic within Germany to and from cities such as Frankfurt and Munich increased by 2 percent in 2022, which particularly benefited the feeder function for long-haul flights. In contrast, decentralized traffic between other German cities has only reached 21 percent of 2019 levels. This trend shows that travelers are increasingly switching to trains and cars, which is encouraged by changing travel habits, such as greater use of online meetings. Loud BDL However, the decline in domestic flights in Germany is worrying - in 2024 there were only half as many domestic flights as in 2019.

Overall, BER seems to be on a better path, but the airport needs to develop both financially and in terms of its flight offer in order to be able to exploit the full strength of its capacities. It remains to be seen whether the coming years will bring much-needed changes and improvements.