Press­ Release

Wanderlust continues into December   
Last year, 9.95 million passengers passed through BER  

The fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic had little impact on the desire to travel during the Christmas season. A total of 1.06 million passengers passed through Berlin Brandenburg Airport last December, only 160,000 fewer than in November 2021. During the holidays in the last two weeks of December alone, 640,000 passengers were processed. In December 2019, 2.6 million people were still using the Schönefeld and Tegel airports at the time.

A total of 9.95 million passengers passed through BER last year. That was almost 900,000 passengers more than in the previous year and less than a third compared to our record year in 2019 with 35.65 million passengers. 

The first half of 2021 started cautiously with 1.59 million passengers in the period from January to June. As the summer holidays began in Berlin and Brandenburg, the desire to travel increased significantly. In the second half of the year, a total of 8.36 million people travelled via BER. The month with the most travel was October 2021 with 1.7 million passengers. 

Last December, 12,200 flight operations were registered, around 100 fewer than in November 2021. For comparison: in December 2019 there were 21,200 flight operations.

Last month, 3,100 tons of air cargo were handled. This represents an increase of 300 tons over the level of the pre-crisis month of December 2019. In total, the cargo volume last year was around 27,500 tons. That was 7,500 tons less than in 2019.

Aletta von Massenbach, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH: “Since July 2021, more than a million people have used BER Airport every month. The number of passengers has more than quintupled since the first half of the year. Since July, use of BER in the morning and evening peak times remained close to normal corona-free operations.”

The December 2021 Traffic Report featuring the final figures will available online from the end of the month:

Traffic ­statistics

Since December 1, 2021, both of BER’s runways have been in simultaneous use again. The attached graphic shows the flight operations on the various flight routes. 

Flight Routes December

The monthly aircraft noise report for December 2021 will be available online from the end of the month:

Stationary Measurements