Berlin Schonefeld Airport

Airport fine arrival and departure very quick and efficient. Transport to city centre in terms of cost and efficiency puts British airports to shame. The whole thing is best described as cheap and cheerful set up for budget airlines where you don't expect passengers to be sat in restaurants and browsing round designer shops for hours. Found all the staff polite and helpful.

Schönefeld (SXF) is annoying. First it's far away from the city staff are unfriendly. Security whistles at people to come over here rude if you don't speak German very inflexible concerning something out of their rule-set (e.g. I had the liquids in two plastic bags within each other - so one plastic bag stuffed into the other. the outer one was regular size. that was not possible - "only one plastic bag allowed"). Processes are sometimes idiotic at the airport. Walks are very long and with lots of stairs up and down. food is relatively expensive.

Flew into SXF from GLA on easyjet going in long line at immigration seemed the computer was running slow fair walk after immigration to baggage claim part of it in a cold passageway open to the outside baggage waiting when we got to baggage claim. As previously stated very little seating landside in terminal A some in the snack bar near the check in area interestingly hold baggage is xrayed before you get to the check in desks. Through security fairly quick given the large number of staff manning the scanners. Lagre duty free shop a small bookstall and another shop selling souvenirs confectionary wine and foodstuffs - and about 10 or so seats though a few more seats in the Kilkenny Pub which oddly you have to pass through to get to Easyjet gates.

Good and cheap public transport connections (Regional trains metro "S-Bahn" and busses all at regular fare) easy to navigate helpful staff. Contra: Both check-in and arrival are rather small and become very crowded in rush times. Way too few seating arrangements. Terminals lack all elegance the atmosphere is that of a bus station or your average IKEA. All in all the airport is cheap in all it's good and bad respects but serves its task efficiently.

A slightly odd experience but much better than some of the other comments on this site led me to expect. Anyone who is looking for the facilities you find at major German Airports like HAM or CGN (let alone MUC) is in for a serious disappointment but take SFX for what it is - a former communist airfield smartened up to deal predominantly with low cost airlines - and it really isn't bad at all. Seating is definitely an issue both in the Terminal A lounge area and at the departure gates. Like some of the other reviewers I wouldn't fancy being delayed here. On the other hand I found the security and airline staff friendly and efficient although unfortunately the same cannot be said for the passport control officers who were checking outbound passengers at the entrance to Gate 65 when I departed. For access to central Berlin it's better to use the faster RB/RE trains rather than the S Bahn - the cost is the same but there are far fewer stops and it's only 20 minutes to Alexanderplatz or 30 minutes to the Hbf.

I use SXF regularly and it does what an airport is meant to do and no more. It's relatively efficient though passenger comfort levels could be increased so that the airside section can cope with delays and cancellations. A tip for the train station - there are two BVG and one DB ticket machines in the main terminal and there are at least two further machines on the S-Bahn platforms in addition to the machines in the walkway.

Considering his airport is now handling more flights than it did during the DDR days it copes very well. The staff - many ex-Interflug employees - are very polite and friendly. Although the walk to the S-Bahn is lengthy and requires a few sets of stairs and uncovered portions at least it has an efficient and convenient link to the centre of Berlin - obviously a throwback to the old days when public transportation was actually encouraged. Having said that the car park provides ample parking and is a great place to pick-up and return rental cars. My only disappointment is that the history of the airport - and especially Interflug is no where to be seen I really hope this may be considered in the design of the new BBI.

A pleasant experience helped no doubt by on time arrival and return departure with hand luggage only. On arrival plenty of ticket machines for train in terminal / train station - only snag was that they ran out of change quickly and if you didn't fiddle quickly to get the exact money then they refused to issue a ticket - keep the coins handy. Glad to read about ticket validation machines (simple punch stamp) on this forum; not obvious on the platform unless you know that you are looking for them. Coming back (Saturday afternoon) plenty of departures but nothing dramatic at security in terms of queue and staff were friendly. Previous comments about lack of seating in corridors and then again at gates supported. Delays are always a pain but I could see how one here could be worse than most if and when it happened and you were already at the gate.

Interesting experience as the airport has some very positive and some very negative aspects. Firstly no queue at check-in no queue at security at all. Staff quite friendly at both. In other words departure could be very smooth. On the other hand as other people have pointed out the airside lounge after security is really lacking- while it is fairly light and offers a few shops / food outlets it does not have anywhere near enough seating. The gate areas too can get very crowded and once you pass through passport control (very slowly!) there aren't even any toilets. The toilets just behind security incidentally were filthy without any toilet paper and no cleaners in sight. Also the airside area does not have any cash machines at all so if you want to purchase something you will need to have enough cash on you already or a card that is accepted by the outlets. As for the train links to the city centre: they aren't too frequent and the S-Bahn takes quite a while (going through the not-so-nice suburbs) but the arrangement is just about adequate given that the airport is never actually that busy compared with most other capital cities.

I used this airport for my first trip to Berlin on March 2nd. I found it was better than expected very well sign-posted and the enquiry desk staff were very helpful. I didn't know which rail ticket to buy from the machine or how to 'validate your ticket' but having English speaking staff with great patience solved everything. It could be improved by more seating if possible but otherwise it's just fine by me.