Media release

Operations at BER remain stable
Disruptions minimised thanks to the dedicated efforts of all partners

Despite the cyber incident affecting an external service provider’s system on Friday evening, the airport company, in close cooperation with the airlines and their service providers, has managed to keep operations at BER largely stable. Departure delays, given the circumstances and the departure rush linked to the Berlin Marathon, remained within limits and were mostly under an hour.

Since Friday evening, staff of the airport company, as well as those of the airlines and their service providers, have been making every effort to keep any delays for passengers as short as possible. Many employees – including those from ground services, the airport fire brigade, the resilience team and the BERteam volunteers – have been on duty almost around the clock, providing additional support to inform travellers and to assist with baggage handling and delivery.

“We would like to thank all staff and partners at BER who have been tirelessly at work throughout the weekend. Their commitment has ensured that, despite the cyber-attack on a system provider, many passengers have been able to take their flights over the past few days. Today as well, we are doing everything we can to keep disruptions for all travellers to a minimum,” commented Aletta von Massenbach, Chief Executive Officer of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH.

Passenger handling on Sunday was largely calm and efficient. Today, due to the departure of numerous marathon participants, passenger volumes are higher, with almost 93,000 travellers expected. As a result, longer waiting times may occur during the course of the day at manual check-in counters as well as at baggage handling and reclaim. Some airlines are still carrying out check-in manually due to the system outage, while others are using their own systems and have therefore been able to speed up the processes.

Since Friday evening, the airport company has been in close contact with the system provider, which is working at full speed to restore the affected passenger and baggage handling system as quickly as possible. On Sunday evening, Collins Aerospace announced that it would soon provide a fully functioning system again.

BER Airport advises passengers to use their airline’s online check-in to avoid waiting times at the counters. In addition, numerous self-service kiosks are available in the terminals, where passengers of the 19 participating airlines can check themselves in and print their boarding passes. They can then drop off their baggage without waiting at the so-called fast bag drop stations. These services are based on a deliberately redundant technical infrastructure put in place by FBB.