Press­ Release

Passenger numbers remain low in December / Global contact restrictions cap air traffic numbers at ten percent of the same month last year

In December, 264,987 passengers were recorded at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport. Although this means the number of passengers is around a quarter higher than in the previous month of November, it is still only around ten percent of the level seen in December 2019. Around 4,600 aircraft take-offs and landings took place last month. In December 2019, more than 2.6 million passengers were handled by the then-operational Tegel and Schönefeld airports, and the number of flights was just under 21,200.

In the whole of 2020, 9.1 million travellers used an airport in the capital region (TXL, SXF and BER). This means that in the year of the coronavirus pandemic, only around a quarter of the number of passengers from the record year of 2019 were recorded. With 105,000 flights, there was a decrease in 2020 of around two thirds compared to the previous year, when almost 289,000 planes either took off or landed at Tegel and Schönefeld airports. The main reason for the decline is the coronavirus pandemic and its associated travel restrictions. A dramatic collapse in passenger numbers coincided with the global spread of the virus from March.

The airfreight volume in December 2020 was about 1,900 tons, around the same level as in November. Compared to the same month the year before, the volume fell by about a third. For the year as a whole, the volume of cargo was a good 22,000 tons, down from almost 35,000 tons in 2019, a decline of just over a third.

Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH: “The turn of the year marks the end of a year of extremes. On the one hand, we were finally able to successfully open BER, but on the other hand, the number of passengers plummeted due to the pandemic. In this difficult global situation, it has become clear how important good freight infrastructure is for the capital region. Unlike the number of passengers, the volume of cargo, though reduced, has not decreased anywhere near as much as passenger traffic.”

The December 2020 traffic report with the final figures can be found online at the end of the month.

Traffic Report