As travel restrictions ease, the airport saw 100,000 more travellers pass through the hub last month compared to April
Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER) saw its first signs of recovery last month, as passenger numbers increased.
In May, around 362,000 passengers took off from the hub – almost 100,000 more than the previous month.
The same time last year saw 52,000 travellers pass through the former Schoenfeld and Tegel airports, whereas in 2019 more than 3.2 million customers used the facilities.
There were 5,400 flights at the hub in May, increasing by 600 compared to the month before. This is a dramatic improvement on last month’s 2020 figures, as only 2,100 aircraft took off and landed at both bases.
“There are increasing signs that air traffic is slowly picking up again,” said Engelbert Lutke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen BER. “At the end of May we had between 10,000 and 18,000 passengers a day. We are still a long way from normalcy.
“But falling numbers of infections, the increasing number of COVID-19 vaccinations and the associated easing of travel are making things safer: more people are now chasing their vacation dreams. If the number of passengers continues to rise in summer and autumn, we may be looking at a forecast of around 10 million passengers for 2021.”
Air cargo operations have remained consistent over the last two months, with around 2,200 tons being processed. Approximately 3,100 tonnes of freight was handled during May 2019.
