Berlin Brandenburg Airport

✅ Trip Verified | Terrible experience, security queues are extraordinarily long due to staff seemingly more interested in sitting around and having a laugh between themselves. They took a tub of cream off my partner with the excuse of it only being allowed in hand luggage, even though it was in her carry on bag. All they said was “too creamy” and binned it.

✅ Trip Verified | Security and passport control are completely inefficient and not fit for an international airport servicing a capital city of a western developed country.

✅ Trip Verified | The worst airport I have ever travelled to. Primitive technology at the security check, the only airport in which liquids need still to be carried on a plastic bag - and if you don’t have the plastic bag 1) they do not provide it 2) it’s impossible to buy it at the airport. The security staff are rude and sarcastic - making fun of the people that have to throw hundreds of euros of perfumes, cream and make up in the garbage. Ridiculous, sad and unacceptable for a city like Berlin.

Not Verified | Arriving at the airport, judging from the exterior my hopes were high. However the moment I walked to security, my faith in this airport quickly disappeared. It was a Friday night, and with almost no other passengers, but it still took 25 minutes to get past Security. Arriving early, I wanted to take the opportunity to explore this new and costly airport and make use of all its features. However, finding out that there is a limited selection of restaurants located in the food court (no 2-way escalators) my choice for a decent meal was fairly limited. With only 3 restaurants open of which 2 were not able to deliver their main meals due to issues with their kitchens, my options were looking even more depressing. This led me to have no other choice but to buy an artificial curry wurst soaked in Ketchup, Mayo & Curry. This was a shame to German culture. After I noticed my flight was delayed, by the way, the Airport's website didn't show any flight data, I thought it would be nice to find a spot to charge my phone. But then, I found out that no seating in this entire airport offered any charging facilities; incredible. Especially given the fact that it took 10 additional years, plus 7 billion euros to only build this place. German efficiency? I think not.

✅ Trip Verified | This airport is a horrific advertisement for Germany's capital city. I flew out on December 31st and had to wait 2 hours for a plane and there were no shops or cafes open, nowhere other than the gate to wait, with only vending machines for water. It was 6pm. But it was New year's eve, so they just shut everything. But my horror was the arrival. Flew in on Ryanair from Scotland and arrived at Terminal 2. The plane had been a bit delayed but we touched down at 21.30. The passport control took some passengers over 2 hours to get through, I was near the front of the queue and it took me 1 hour 10 minutes to get through. There were no staff on hand, no seats for the elderly, no toilets in the corridor where seriously, nearly 600 people must have been waiting. The airport wifi was not reachable. Everyone really stressed as they realised their last trains had already left and now they were stranded for the night if they ever got through security. There was initially only 2 people working the passport booths and Fasttrack automated gates were not available for German residents with foreign passports. The staff are offensively aggressive ( in security, passport control and ground staff), the signposting is dismal and all in all this place is a disaster.

✅ Trip Verified | Disorganised airport, insufficient staff, broken baggage machines and no organised queue, people pushing each other to get through. A queue built up on the escalator which is dangerous, this was due to the escalator being too near the boarding pass machines. Terrible airport!

Not Verified | Security very inefficient. Long waiting to process very few people. A bit unfriendly staff. Privacy at security very poor. Staff appears to have poor working conditions. Poor overview of directions in the airport. Such a poor design. The same on arrival, you get lost in the similarity of concrete structures and poor sings.

✅ Trip Verified | Without a doubt, the worst experience I have ever had in an airport and by a very large distance the worst too. The passport control had one queue for all passengers from numerous flights all scrambling and bewildered for a long time. I actually wondered if I would still be queuing for a few hours which would have been longer than my flight. There was no staff helping the queues to organise more quickly. Eventually, some people decided to give up queuing and waiting their turn which resulted in a stampede towards the passport control. There are no signs visible anywhere. If cattle on the way to slaughter were treated like this there would be numerous animal rights violations. This is no way to treat people. Shame on Berlin Airport and whoever is responsible. An absolute disgrace.

Not Verified | Let me frame this review by stating that I am a frequent business traveller and take 30-40 flights a year, mostly European. I've also experienced Tegel, Schonefeld (as both public and private flights) and Brandenburg airports, and can compare across all three. Bring back TXL. For all its faults - and there were many, many faults - none of these compare to the shambles that is BER airport. It's so bad, I genuinely dread having to fly to Berlin, and it's something I do every few weeks. I hate going because of how stressful I find the airport experience. Parts of BER are perfectly average - the main hall is large and spacious, there are a few shops selling the usual stuff, there's a well stocked 'duty free' area and a few nice clothes shops. Now if I was describing a provincial shopping centre, this would be fine, but this is the flagship airport of the capital city of Europe's largest economy. Let that sink in. Parts of BER are nothing short of a Germany national fiasco which without doubt ruins peoples first and last impressions of this great country. The security sections are simply not fit for purpose and cannot deal with the numbers of passengers which expect to flow through the systems smoothly. Staff are invariably surly, brusque and totally disinterested in getting people through any faster that what feels to be a union imposed 'minimum amount'. Inbound immigration is no better; there is gross understaffing versus the numbers of Pax traversing the airport. Those not travelling on an EU passport are subject to the most ridiculous queues. I can compare this with Tegel, where the immigration desks were immediately at the tops of the walkways, so you usually had 2 staff dealing with a single planeload of people, so even if you were at the very back, you usually got out after 30 minutes. I have personally queued for up to 90 minutes in this new system; during my last trip, there was a physical fist fight between people in the queue who's patience was being tested by the lack of speed or care of the German authorities to process people in an efficient manner. Stuff also just doesn't work. There's a whole bunch of 'defekt' signs in public spaces. Toilets which are a matter of 12-18 months old don't flush. Doors don't open properly. I've experienced multiple airbridge mechanical failures which have resulted in a stairs exit of a stand-parked aircraft.

Not Verified | Awful queues for security, unpleasant staff, long distance to gates. The design of this airport (although recent) could not be worse. The guys who designed it should be fired!