After More Than Two Decades Berlin’s New Airport Is Ready, And Lufthansa’s Move-in Plans Were Leaked

In 1989 David Hasselhof stood atop the Berlin Wall belting out “Looking for Freedom.” Less than a year later East Germans were finally free.

Thirty one years after David Hasselhof stood between East and West Berlin the East’s old airport may finally be freed as the new Berlin Brandenburg airport, replacing Berlin Tegel. It’s a costly reminder of East German-style planning.

berlin brandenburg airport check-in desks
Credit, Muns, via Wikimedia Commons

Fortunately Lufthansa finally has plans to move in to the Ghost Airport that has been sitting there, waiting for fixes, for 9 years (along with the rail station and the airport hotel).

JonNYC has broadened out beyond merely leaking the internal thinking at American Airlines. He’s been on a roll with Lufthansa-related plans lately as well including new routes. He has the plan for Berlin Brandenburg.

  • Lufthansa Group airlines – including Austrian, Swiss, and Brussels Airlines – will have last flights of the day arrive into the new airport on November 7, and all flights depart from there November 8.

  • Eurowings and SunExpress will have last flights of the day arrive into the new airport on November 3, and all flights depart from there November 4.

  • Tomorrow, March 4, these flights will switch in airline computers from Berlin Tegel (TXL) to Berlin Brandenburg (BER).


Credit: Muns, via Wikimedia Commons

Requests for proposals to build this airport went out in 1997. Twenty three years and over $8 billion later the project will finally have its first flights.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Just to clarify, as of tomorrow all flights ->TXL will now be ->BER? That’s quick.

    I’m curious what happens Nov4->Nov7 where Eurowings gets a MUC-BER flight on Nov5 and it goes into Brandenburg, but LH gets a MUC-BER flight on Nov5 and it’s still going to Tegel.

    At this rate, it’s unlikely to actually happen. But still, would be nice to finally see BER finally open. I’ve been avoiding flights to BER (with preference for DUS/FRA and then ICE->Berlin) because TXL is the equivalent of LGA for Europe.

    Shame AirBerlin couldn’t be around to see it. Speaking of which, I wonder how many other businesses’ futures were shortened due to Brandenburg’s issues.

  2. @Jon – no. The above-referenced TXL flights become BER flights in November 2020. But starting tomorrow, the airlines’ computers will reflect that these flights from November 2020 onward are BER flights instead of TXL flights.

    Can’t believe this is actually happening*

    (*subject to change – 8 months is a long time from now)

  3. Oh, JonNYC will do more than leak AA tidbits. If you’ve ever considered picking up a BMW in Europe he is your guy. Lots of knowledge there. (Though he is now a tristar kind of guy as are all never trumpers)

  4. Berlin clearly needs a new airport, but as a customer, I’m not sure I’ll like this move. It reminds me of Stapleton closing for the new Denver airport. Is the new Denver airport nicer? Absolutely. Would I prefer that Stapleton had stayed open? Yes. I’ll take convenience over “niceness” any day.

  5. One correction: Berlin Tegel (TXL) is not in (former) East Berlin. It is in (former) West Berlin 🙂

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