Berlin Brandenburg Airport — Attraction in Schönefeld

TLDR: Big disappointment, way below expectations. Long queues, insufficient information, incompetent staff.

We were a group of 5, flying from Berlin. The whole experience was way below our expectations for an international airport in a central European city. This began in the evening before our departure - I got an SMS from the airline operator regarding our flight being delayed. I wanted to cross-check this information on the airport website, but surprisingly enough the BER airport website was showing only the original flight time and no information on the expected delay. I had to resort to 3rd party sites (like flightradar24) to find this information, which was readily available there (but not on the official BER airport site!). I have re-checked the airport website ~4 hours before the original departure time and the information regarding expected delay was not yet available there. At the airport, we were disappointed by the personnel - some spoke only German, some were incompetent and some were inconsiderate with the passengers. The check-in was incredibly slow - we stood in the line for 2 hours, and we were not among the last ones in the line! The worker in the check-in stand was incompetent, looked like he was not completely familiar with the procedure and the process involved many questions and verifications and took a long time. The security checks also took a long time - our flight destination required double security check, so in total security control took around 30 minutes, which is also way too much in my opinion. The delays were mainly caused by conflicting instructions given by different workers at the security control line. For example, the first security person in the first security check told my husband he can keep his wireless earphones on him when passing through the body scanner, but this proved to be incorrect. My husband was sent to the beginning of the line to remove the earphones and send them through the hand luggage scanner in a separate tray, and had to wait for the other passengers to finish their checks to collect them. In the second security check at the beginning we were told there is no need to remove protective cover from laptops and tablets and it again proved to be incorrect. We had to remove the covers and resend the electronics through the scanner, and wait again. The bags were hand-checked after passing through the scanner, and the checkers were not careful and left a mess in the bags they checked. Lighters - they have rather peculiar limitations regarding cigarette lighters, I didn't encounter anything similar in other airports. According to rules listed on the airport website, only gas (butane) non-windproof lighters are allowed, only one lighter per passenger. However, my friend had her gas lighter thrown away because it was not a "normal" lighter according to the security person description (it looked like Zippo lighter on the outside, but it was operated by butane and it wasn't a windproof lighter). No description or reference of "normal" lighter is available in the airport information. We have tried to discuss this with the security person, but to no avail. My husband had 2 lighters on him, so one was thrown away. The security person could be more considerate, and suggest him to pass the lighter to other member of our group. Water - there were signs everywhere instructing to dispose of liquids above 100 ml, and bottles collection containers, so we disposed of our water bottles, only to discover that drinks are actually allowed through security control, as they have a special scanner for that. And due to the long procedures, we didn't have time to buy food or drink, which caused us further discomfort...

My review is primarily based on Terminal 2. I was expecting more from a German Airport. The positive experience is that it's clean and not horrendously overcrowded like some airports, however the good points stop there.

Arrival Experience: Arrival was a +1 hour queue just to get through the "all passports" queue. There are only 3 manned desks, and the 4th desk was for additional EU passports... This is although there are already x6 automated EU passport control booths! The "EU passport" queue was completely empty and for most of the 1 hour we were queuing. To compound this factor more though, there are zero queue controls. Our flight arrived a good 10 mins before another flight and was queuing in an organised fashion. The next flight's occupants just proceeded to walk to the front of the queue, and simply filtered in. The 3rd flight after ours proceeded to do the same, with some skipping the queue down the EU queue then filtering into the All Passports queue. The only funny side to this was these two flights were then waiting for luggage, whilst our flights luggage had been on the carousel stationary for quite a while, as it stopped moving!

Departure Experience: Our airline company informed us by email that the flight had been delayed by 1:15 hours, however the Airport Boarding Display Boards was still showing it on time up to 30 mins before the flight was supposed to depart! Based on the worry that we couldn't confirm that the flight was on time directly with the airport... We moved to the displayed Gate. This is where the layout of this airport is simply stupid! To get to the gate you have to go through Passport Control (which is not with security in one booth, they are dotted in front of each small bunch of gates), in which we asked to confirm our flight status, as if it's delayed we would prefer to stay in the pre-passport section in order to obtain food and drink. They said it was on time and we needed to get to the gate as soon as possible. On getting to the gate, our airlines display clearly showed a 2 hour delay (not the 1:15 hour delay from the email). We we're unable to return to obtain food or drink for 2 hours. Not impressed, especially when the delay was dinner time, between 5-7pm! To add to this, gate seating is limited so they opened seating behind the gate (priority gate seating). We sat here nice and comfortable for a good hour, until a gate operator proceeded to get everyone to move into the pre-gate area even though there was an hour remaining and no airplane had even landed at this point for us to board... So we were moved to sit on the floor! Really classy Brandenburg Airport!

Boarding on Departure: As seen by the photo this did not go well. They proceeded to "board us" although the airplane had not even landed. (I can understand this is the airlines way of reducing time and not breach the 3 hour delay, so this is not the airports fault). We then proceeded to stand in the crowded space for around 30-40 mins whilst we waited for our airplane to arrive.. However, the golden moment... we personally then had to aid a blind passenger on the flight that had paid for priority boarding, only to be "priority boarded" to the post gate area!?!?! As a result she and her friend with us...

Inefficient security controls. Tegel 5 minutes, BER 90 minutes.....

Update March 2023, security is still a shadow of itself, getting through with prams is horrible, just a queue that works particularly slowly and inefficiently. Other snakes don't accept families even if you have a stroller the size of a suitcase, or only do this after a lot of discussion, but then it's all right at once...... So, fortunately, everything can still be done two hours before departure.

Otherwise the check in didn't work properly because a new software was tested, which took almost an hour to check in 15 people.....

Otherwise, my luggage was missing from September to November last year, including the pram. On a short-haul flight.

Elsewhere I am forced to check in the stroller as bulky luggage. Although the airline announced in advance that you can get to the gate with it, the ground staff didn't seem to care because they were understaffed. Great with a change.

A few weeks later it worked once and then not again.

I'm afraid this will continue

Internationally, unfortunately, still a laughing stock.

Of course, the last 3 flights were also significantly delayed, but that may well be due to other factors

Update 27.3 a particular highlight is the loveless children's area when picking up luggage, who thinks up something like that? A black screen and dirty floor stickers make you feel really comfortable.

Update 17.6.23 the luggage still takes forever, after leaving the plane in Terminal 2 I waited another 40 minutes for two suitcases. For comparison, in Thessaloniki he was almost there as soon as I left the plane (possibly waited 5 minutes) again and again impressive how our international airport works.....

Update November 2024:

Kids Zone still looks like a desert, but hell yeah the tv is running. Especially in international Airport standards a poor performance

Update 2025

Some things have improved; luggage now arrives relatively quickly after landing, and security works better. However, the rules at the scanners still seem to change monthly. The bathrooms are still mostly dirty and not well equipped. The budget terminal is way too small.

Family and child-friendliness remain poor. Disabled people have priority, but pregnant women or families with small children still don't. Most international airports are doing much better in this regard. There are dedicated lanes at security, etc., and people are given priority at passport control. Reasonable waiting areas. Unfortunately, it's all still very poorly designed, with little choice.

The flight selection is still poor, probably due to the high fees; it's not a capital airport, but a...