Nothing ever goes right with Berlin Brandenburg Airport ‘Willy Brandt’ International Airport.

First mooted in 1991, work actually got under way in 2006 with a planned 2011 opening date.

It will officially open next Saturday 31 October, nine years late.

EasyJet is standing by with an aircraft from the about to be redundant Tegel Airport and a symbolic first flight together with Lufthansa on the parallel runways (with the T1 complex in-between).

BER is a combination of two airports, Schönefeld, now called T5, and the brand-new Brandenburg.  EasyJet has been operating into Schönefeld with its fast train service to the city centre for many years.

Berlin had planned a big party with the new gateway to the German capital.  With Covid-19 this will not happen, the 750 guests reduced to 55 and whether this includes Chancellor Merkel remains to be seen.  The local area is a hotspot for the pandemic.

As for easyJet it can only watch and wait.  Its first scheduled flight is next Sunday 1 November from BER T1, its new permanent home, the EU2 8210 at (all times local) 06:45 which is scheduled in at Gatwick 07:50 and departs 08:45 as the EU2 8125 for the return journey (arriving 11:45).

Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines will transfer 1 November into T1 and on 4 November Eurowings and Vueling will land at T1, with the next day Ryanair, SunExpress and Sundair operating from T5 and Belavia, Georgian Airways, Egyptair and Norwegian T1.  The balance of airlines at Tegel will then follow over the next few days with the airport officially closing 7 November.  Don’t go to the wrong airport/terminal.

The cost of the new airport has recently been put at €5.4bn.

https://ber.berlin-airport.de/en.html