It should compensate for possible capacity bottlenecks – but this will no longer be necessary due to the reduced number of passengers at the capital’s airport BER. The supervisory board is now taking the main building of the GDR airport in Schönefeld out of the planning.
The old Schönefeld Airport will not be used as Terminal T5 of the capital’s BER airport in the future either. According to a statement, the supervisory board of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (FBB) finally decided to end it. According to the original plans, Terminal T5 was intended to compensate for impending capacity bottlenecks at BER – but this is no longer necessary, not least due to the lower number of passengers as a result of the corona pandemic.
Terminal 5 is the terminal building of the former GDR central airport in Schönefeld. It’s quite a distance from the rest of BER – not an attractive location for both airlines and passengers. In addition, the terminal would have had to be extensively renovated. Whether and how the building will be used in the future was initially left open.
At its meeting, the supervisory body also extended the contract of the CEO, Aletta von Massenbach. She came to FBB in September 2020 as Commercial Director and has been CEO since October 2021.
In the statement, von Massenbach was quoted as saying that “there is still a lot to be done for financially stable, well-connected and sustainable flight operations”. The war in Ukraine and the ongoing economic crisis will continue to pose major challenges for air traffic and thus also for BER. According to the business plan, the airport expects 26 million passengers and an operating result (EBITDA) of 142 million euros for the next year.