opinion poll
BER can get better for sockets and gastronomy
A bank with sockets is available in Terminal 1 of Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Photo: Burkhard Fraune/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Two minuses – the new airport performs better on passengers than the old Tegel Airport. But there are also far fewer passengers. And some things can get better.
According to a survey commissioned by the operator, passengers are generally satisfied with the new capital airport BER. In the first full year of operation, they awarded the grade 2.3, as the company announced.
There were particularly good ratings for the cleanliness, the WLAN and the friendliness at the security checkpoint. The 13,500 respondents gave the poorest assessment of the range of restaurants and the availability of sockets. The average grade was 2.7.
Opening in the middle of the Corona crisis
Passengers are significantly happier with BER than with the old Tegel Airport. In the last full year of operation, 2019, it received an average grade of 3.4. However, in the end only the bare essentials were invested in the old building. Meanwhile, more than six billion euros flowed into BER, which went online in the middle of the Corona crisis. So far, passengers have rarely experienced crowded days there.
The BER offers four times as much space as Tegel. Last year, however, there were only around 10 million passengers. In Tegel it was 24 million in 2019.
The journey to the airport was not included in the grade. According to the survey, a good half of the passengers came by bus and train to BER. Every third person needed more than an hour to get to the terminal. It is planned to increase the proportion of public transport. According to the will of the operators, 70 percent of the passengers should come by bus and train in the long term.
Criticism of outlet availability
The topic of sockets is a frequent point of criticism at BER. When the airport was planned, there were hardly any smartphones. The operators have so far refused to tear up the natural stone floor to retrofit additional cables for sockets. Instead, they have set up USB charging stations for mobile phones at the gates in the main pier and in front of the security checkpoints. There are also sockets on the benches in the north and south pier wings and in Terminal 2.
The gastronomy offer suffered from the corona pandemic. Many providers had to close for a longer period of time or were only allowed to sell “take away”. That’s why some restaurateurs didn’t even open when BER started and only moved in this year, as an airport spokesman explained. All providers should therefore be open this year.
The new airport was opened at the end of October 2020 after more than 14 years of construction. Terminal 2 also went online on Thursday. It had not been used until now because of the low number of passengers.