Twitter reactions
“Embarrassing”, “unworthy”, “best tear it down”: passengers rate BER Airport
Passengers at the Berlin Brandenburg capital airport “Willy Brandt” (BER) in front of the security check. Angry passengers had to wait more than two hours for check-in on Saturday, for example.
© Christoph Soeder / DPA
Long queues and missed planes – the recent chaos at Berlin Airport has led to all sorts of criticism. Air travelers are now venting their anger on Twitter.
Travel chaos at BER: Around a year after opening, the new airport in the capital region was completely overloaded for the first time on the weekend. Angry and frustrated passengers had to wait more than two hours for check-in on Saturday or even missed their machines. The mobile exit stairs were always missing for arriving planes.
At the beginning of the autumn holidays in Berlin and Brandenburg, around 67,000 passengers traveled via BER for the first time in the pandemic on Friday, according to an airport spokesman. On Saturday it was 55,000 and on Sunday 66,000. Such figures are still a long way from pre-crisis levels. At this stage, however, there were already too many for the airport.
Check-in is currently particularly time-consuming because, due to the pandemic, most travelers there have to present corona tests or proof of vaccination in order to be able to start their trip.
At BER, only one of three passenger terminals is currently open for cost reasons: the main terminal T1. As before, those responsible assume that the capacities there will be sufficient as long as the staffing level is not too thin. It should therefore remain stressful for travelers and employees at first.
A Twitter user sums up his experience with “airports where I have been processed faster in the last few weeks than on #BER: Kabul (Afghanistan), Termiz (Uzbekistan), Erbil (Kurdistan)”.
Another user says: “The overall construction of the #BER is a 20-year-old airport. It has never run under full load. It won’t, because it is already completely overwhelmed and does not work. Unworthy of a German capital and awkward.”
Finally, another would like to “tear down the airport”. “A shame” is the #BER for Germany, summarizes another one for himself.
Occasionally, however, there were also contributions from travelers whose stay and departure or arrival at the airport worked. A passenger who was also twittering had “zero problems today. You know where to go. 45 minutes from taxi exit to gate (including buying food) and everyone is nice.”