The new airport in Brandenburg counted 7.2 million passengers this year. This meets the expectations. At the same time, the state is now supporting BER with millions more.
According to the airport, operations at BER are increasing faster than expected. “At the moment things are going better at BER than we expected,” said airport boss Aletta von Massenbach in the Brandenburg state parliament in Potsdam.
So far this year, 7.2 million passengers have been counted. “Summer comes alive,” added the CEO. However, it is unclear what will happen in the fall in view of the corona virus and what consequences the high price increase could have.
Budget Committee releases 146.5 million euros
“For 2022, we see that we will meet our expectations,” said von Massenbach in Parliament’s Budget Committee. With the majority of the red-black-green coalition in Brandenburg, this released a further 146.5 million euros for the airport company. They are part of a Corona aid package worth 1.7 billion euros and have so far been blocked in the budget. First, the airport should present an updated business plan for 2022. Brandenburg owns the company alongside Berlin and the federal government.
The major customer Easyjet wants to withdraw several machines from Schönefeld for the winter flight schedule. That will hardly affect the airport balance sheet this year, says von Massenbach. It is also still open whether other airlines will fill the gap.
Free voters describe BER as a “bottomless pit”
Criticism of the state financial injection for BER came from the Free Voters, among others. The airport had become the “bottomless pit” that citizens’ initiatives had always expected, said MP Philipp Zeschmann. As one of the proponents, Green Thomas von Gizycki said: “The alternatives that we have would all look much more terrible.” He assumes that the airport will be able to refinance itself in the future.
