Berlin Tegel Airport

The airport is not open 24 hours. Last year while traveling to this airport, we were not able to get in 2 hours prior to our 6.00am departure. This year, we showed up at 4.20 and nearly missed our 6.00am departure. The system they utilize is inefficient. They have 4 working machines to check in, which is a huge bottlenecked mess down near the line for security. You then take your paper to the counter where the line zig-zags so you can check your bags. At the time, AirFrance/KLM had 4 people working the counter. As soon as I was up, I told the lady who was helping us that we had a group of 8 who were trying to catch our flight (by this time it was 5.30 and most of my students had not yet been able to get through the check in line). The lady helped me and told me to have them come to her 2x2 to get checked in and check in our bags. One positive thing was my bag was overweight and I had to pay the fee. Last year I was required to leave this section of the airport to go pay at another, and this year I was able to go to the end of this counter to pay. The woman would not let me take 2 carry on bags, which Delta/KLM state are okay. I was then supposed to pay another fee for an extra checked piece of luggage. As soon as this woman was done helping me, she decided she was done and left, this left many of my students without the option of checking in. They switched lines and tried another woman who said she was taking a break and they needed to figure out another line to enter. This airport (or maybe just AirFrance/KLM) ran completely dysfunctionally. Security finally stepped in and had only those passengers traveling to Amsterdam at 6.00 going through which sped up the process and they also stepped in to allow those traveling on a 6:00am flight to go ahead at the counter to be checked in so they could make their flight. At 5.55am, the last of our group arrived on the plane, being chastised by the woman who was boarding people; little did she know there were still people behind us running through security trying to catch their flight, as well.

Berlin Tegel is an unfriendly airport for families with children - extremely poor shopping possibilities, too small for a city like Berlin and difficult to find you way. Unfriendly personnel. Although it is a small airport, it is difficult to find the bus transportation which is far away from some gates.

Berlin Tegel takes you to a previous age in travel but not in a good way. With the ambience of a eastern bloc spy thriller, this cramped claustrophobic space has poor signage and little to recommend it. Security clearance is slow and the eating facilities consist of a trolley, small bar and bakery. Chaotic passenger reception means you don't know which queue is the check in and general lack of information of what is going on means people seems to join random queues by rumour rather than design. If this were a remote regional airport in a location deep in Eastern Europe you might understand that it was a work in progress. However it's hard to believe this is in a major European capital city. Awful.

A very poorly organised airport. A total lack of signage indicating where to check in. At the British Airways desk there was no signage at all. Passengers very confused as to where economy passengers should line up and where business class should line up. One staff member sitting behind desk doing her nails and ignoring everyone. I eventually asked if I was in the right place and she barked at me 'we don't open until 2 hours before the flight leaves'. Fine, but put some signage up so that people know. Rude staff everywhere in the airport who seem to think they are doing you a massive favour to provide information. For some peculiar reason the airport lounge is landslide rather than airside. Why? Such a shame for a great and friendly city like Berlin to have such a dated and inefficient airport.

Not the best of experiences flying into and out of Berlin Tegel. The airport is very dated with limited shopping and restaurants available. Transport to and from the airport too is limited to cab, car or bus. No trains or underground directly to the airport. Bag drop turned into an awfully long wait only opening 1.5 hours before departure. Absolutely no information. You really want to get rid of your hold luggage as soon as possible, as this will make your stay at the airport a lot more comfortable, so very annoyed about the long wait. Security check was just after bag drop and fast but again very, very limited amount of shops and food available after security check. Free wifi but only for an hour. Next time I'll make sure not to arrive early as it's just an absolute waste of time coming early. I suppose the way to see Tegel is, that it is functional but not too bothered about a great customer experience. If you want to start or end a holiday in style, Tegel is not the airport to fly to/from.

Not as iconic as Tempelhof, but I sure will miss Tegel when it closes. Okay, it's cramped but it's highly efficient due to it's round shape (well, the orginal building). That means ultrashort walkways and when you travel without luggage you don't have to show up untill 45 mins before departure since the security control is right at the gate. Short taxiing ways too, so overall it's always fast in and out. It's a pity that it has no U-bahn connection, but it's well served by buses. It takes only 20 mins to Bahnhof Zoo on the X9, but it can take up to 40 mins to Alexanderplatz on the TXL. The 128 to Kurt-Schumacher-platz (8 mins) and the U^ can be a good alternative.

Terrible airport. Arrived early thinking we would have plenty of things to do to find that there was one shop pre security and after a tiny cafe only. Also were contained like cattle pre passport control in an area with nothing even though our departure gate was empty. A really bad outdated airport with a lack of facilities which is quite surprising for such a modern city.

It is well known that Berlin Tegel has been operating far beyond operational capacities for years due to unbelievable bungling and sloppiness upon building the new BER airport in the south of Berlin. It is also known that TXL has narrow airport halls and waiting areas, everything is a bit grubby and out-dated. Critical infrastructures work with overload only, nevertheless people working there try to give their best to keep the things running. So it's the sheer madness - happened yesterday, Feb 18, from 1pm to 3pm - to fiddle with IT systems under these circumstances: Airport IT was migrating the complete check-in systems to another bunch of servers. On a weekday. Shortly after lunch. With the predictable result that all check-in terminals crashed for more than 90 minutes, emergency luggage tags were distributed as well as handwritten boarding cards were issued after 50 minutes initial stupor of the responsible persons. Every other company in the world running critical IT structures knows that a server migration should be done during the night, preferably on a weekend, with enough time reserve to check and reboot the respective IT systems. Only the "experts" in TXL do not know that. So, TXL is once again an example for all what's going on completely wrong in Germany nowadays.

Having read the reviews I was surprised at the speed of service at Terminal A which is the older terminal. The arrival was fast and there was only a 5 minute wait for baggage. However the belt stopped when fellow travellers tried to grab bags has they appeared rather than wait for them to drop on the carousel. From landing to exit was about 20 minutes. The departure was smooth and trouble free and I like the fact that exiting security you do not have to walk though Duty Free to get to the gate. Security is at the gate and again was trouble free.

I am not sure why people always complain. If you use an airport to depart and/or arrive only, Tegel is great. From the plane to the Taxi booth is less than 50 meters. The only downturn could be a long security line as they have only on desk / scanner per gate and sometimes two gates are handled in one line. Anyhow, you won't miss your plane due to this. Yes, the facilities are not what you expect from an airport of a city like Berlin, it may have its downsides when you have to connect in Berlin and have no lounge access, but for going to / from Berlin, Tegel is just great. I jumped in a Taxi downtown Berlin 1 hour prior to departure. Try this in Paris, London, Frankfurt. Good Luck.