BERLIN – Passenger volume at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) remained at a very low level in April. Approximately 265,000 passengers took off and landed at BER last month. That is around 44,000 more than in the previous month of March. However, in April of the pre-crisis year 2019, around 3,100,000 passengers used the then Schönefeld and Tegel airports.

The reason for the drastic decline in numbers at all German airports is the continuing global travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. A total of around 840,000 passengers took off and landed at BER in the first four months of this year. This means that not even ten percent of the passenger volume of the previous year was achieved. During the whole of 2020, 9.1 million travellers used an airport location in the capital region (TXL, SXF and BER).

Last month, there were 4,184 aircraft movements at BER, compared to just 1,115 at Schönefeld and Tegel in April last year. Around 23,700 aircraft still took off and landed at the two former airports in April 2019.

Conversely, the decline in air freight is significantly lower compared to the pre-crisis month in 2019; BER handled a total of around 2,200 tonnes of goods in April 2021, which is only around 300 tonnes less than in April 2019.

Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, Chief Executive Officer of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH: “Like all other German airports, the airport company expects only a slow recovery in air traffic. There was a small increase in travel during the Easter holidays, especially on the holiday weekends, with up to 15,000 passengers per day. However, the industry’s hopes for a significant increase in business were not met. We estimate 10.7 million passengers in our forecast for 2021. This number can only be achieved if the vaccination strategy is effective, travel restrictions are lifted or eased and, as a result, travel picks up again in the summer.”

The April 2021 traffic report with the final figures is available online at the end of the month.