Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) was supposed to be Germany’s premier international gateway. But it’s no secret that since its long-delayed and over-budget opening in 2020 – nearly a decade late – it has struggled to meet expectations. Frequent strikes, limited service, slow security lines, and poor transit connections have fueled public frustration, turning BER into a cautionary tale of poor planning, political neglect and squandered potential.
Ticket prices have risen sharply in recent years, and of course we feel that here in Berlin.
In the latest reputational hit for the airport, critics now say Berlin is treated like a “second‑class” capital city when it comes to aviation policy – an impression echoed by Berlin Tourism Director Burkhard Kieker, who links the city’s weak tourism numbers in part to the “very slow recovery of flight connections at BER,” with nearly nine million fewer passengers than in 2019 and pricier, less frequent flights. As Christian Tänzler, press officer for Visit Berlin, warns, rising airfares are compounding the city’s connectivity problem. “Ticket prices have risen sharply in recent years, and of course we feel that here in Berlin. We’re competing with other international metropolises, and we can definitely feel that pressure.”
For potential visitors, fewer routes and higher prices make Berlin a harder sell compared to cheaper, better-connected cities. The result is a tangible loss in tourist arrivals, hotel stays, and local spending – a sobering shift for a city whose revival after the fall of the Wall was fueled in no small part by tourism. “It was actually the tourists who saved the city from its bankruptcy,” recalls Hanno Hochmuth of the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History. For a city that depends on international tourism and a growing creative class, Berlin’s limited air connectivity is more than a logistical nuisance – it’s an economic liability.
In May 2022, easyJet announced plans to reduce its fleet at BER from 18 to 11 aircraft, citing “slower than expected recovery of demand” and “high airport fees”. The move put 275 pilot and cabin crew jobs at risk, with easyJet’s German Country Manager Stephan Erler stating, “The expected demand for travel, high airport fees, and our efforts to optimize our network… mean it is necessary to restructure our operations”.
Further analysis revealed that easyJet’s overall Berlin capacity in late July 2024 was only 39% of the seats it offered in summer 2019 across Berlin’s former air travel hubs, Tegel and Schönefeld, combined. Despite earlier dominance, Ryanair had overtaken easyJet as Berlin’s busiest airline by July 2024.
A month later, in August 2024, Ryanair announced it would cut 20% of its traffic at BER, eliminating 750,000 seats, dropping six routes, and reducing its Berlin-based fleet from nine to seven aircraft. The airline blamed Germany’s steep aviation tax and “sky‑high access costs”, warning that Berlin is “one of the worst recovered airports in Europe” and noting its intention to redeploy planes to “lower-cost EU airports with no aviation taxes”.
It was actually the tourists who saved the city from its bankruptcy.
Some hope lies in policy change: in December 2024, several German states called on the federal government to reduce aviation taxes and fees, warning that Germany’s airports lag behind more competitive markets. Earlier in 2025, Germany floated a lifeline – a promise to roll back the 2024 air traffic tax hike and make flights cheaper by 2026. Yet in the final budget negotiations, that proposal was shelved. Government insiders confirmed there’s simply “no fiscal room” to reverse the increase, despite mounting pressure from airlines and airport operators warning of long-term damage to Germany’s aviation competitiveness.
On the full-service side, Lufthansa has refrained from positioning BER as a core hub. Thrasivoulos Malliaras, Lufthansa’s Berlin representative, told state lawmakers, “It is being made hard” for the airline to expand at BER. He described the high cost burden – including taxes on departures from Berlin more than twice the level of Brussels – as “the growth killer number one.” He added, “Individual long-haul flights from Berlin are hardly economical”. That hasn’t stopped Lufthansa from expanding in Frankfurt and Munich – cities that enjoy better tax conditions and stronger state support.
Local officials have echoed the frustration. SPD politician Jörg Stroedter lamented earlier this year that “the Hauptstadt is being neglected” and emphasized that 35 years after reunification, Berlin still lacks long-haul service despite its status as Germany’s seat of government. In no other G7 capital would such a disconnect between national significance and air service be tolerated.
The Hauptstadt is being neglected.
The upshot? Berlin remains the only major European capital without a flagship long-haul hub carrier. Budget airlines that once anchored BER’s connectivity are retrenching due to soaring costs, and Lufthansa has no incentive to build direct routes from Berlin when Frankfurt and Munich remain its strategic centers. The result is a hollowed-out hub that fails both residents and visitors – a capital city where direct flights and prestige routes are few and far between.
Until structural changes occur – either through significant tax relief or strategic shifts from airlines – BER’s global aspirations will likely remain grounded. If Berlin is to compete with London, Paris, or even Warsaw, Germany must stop treating its capital like a regional stopover. That means cutting fees, revising tax burdens, and actively incentivising long-haul carriers to stay and expand. Berlin may have poured billions into BER, but without better connectivity, it risks becoming a modern purgatory for missed connections. The Hauptstadt deserves better – and the world deserves a Berlin that’s reachable.
