Berlin airports

Tegel Airport, Berlin

The capitals of the world have a lot of air traffic and their airports are often among the busiest. For example, in Germany alone there are 36 international airports, the busiest being Frankfurt, Munich and Düsseldorf.

Only in fourth place are the Berlin airports. Let's get to know them.

Tegel Airport

Tegel Airport

Berlin had two international airports for commercial flights: Tegel and Schönefel. Together they transported millions of passengers, but things have changed and after many twists and turns, today there is a modern and huge airport that is already 100% operational: it is the Branderburg Willy Bran International Airport.

But, if you have traveled to Berlin before, surely you have seen another building: the Berlin Tegel Airport, whose IATA code was TXL, which was the main airport of the German capital. It was like this for years, but it stopped working in 2020. It is located to the west of the city, in Tegel. It will be about 10 kilometers from the center.

this airport opened after the end of the war, in 1948, and at that time it was known as the Otto Lilienthal Airport. It was built in just 90 days to serve the western side at the time of the so-called Berlin Airlift. From here the city was connected to Europe and the world, but it was relatively small and quickly came to have more passengers than space, with its hexagonal layout and somewhat awkward terminals.

Tegel Airport

architecture is something brutalist, hexagonal shape as if it were an air fortress, but it was quite efficient in getting passengers from the plane to the taxis or buses, and with them to the city, quite quickly on days with little traffic. It was thus very comfortable for the passengers, as it was easy to navigate and you really have to walk very little.

That is to say, transportation within Tegel Airport was very easy, minimum. After the controls, the plane was close by and there used to be buses that covered that short distance.

Berlin Tegel Airport it worked every day from 4 am to midnight. As we said at the beginning, its capacity became obsolete over time and for years there was talk of closing or expanding it until the former finally happened, after years of being in a kind of limbo. You have to think that it was built for a city of two and a half million inhabitants and since at least 2016 it has processed traffic of 21 million per year.

Tegel Airport

It was a place where there was little space to do more than hang out. The idea of ​​a place where one could be connected for twelve hours was a long way off.

Now, although it was the most important airport in Berlin for years, it did not have a good connection with the city.how did a passenger get from Tegel Airport to Berlin? In the case of Germany we can venture a good public transport system, but it must be said that although it is good in the case of this airport there were not many options. And when I say few, I really mean only one: the bus.

You could buy a ticket that was valid for two hours in one direction, but it included the public bus system so you could get to your accommodation with it, as long as it didn't involve traveling more than two hours from the airport.

Tegel Airport

Taxis are not and were not the cheapest in terms of transportation, but if you go to Germany you should know that they operate with a flat rate of around 4 euros, from which a cost is added for the first seven kilometers traveled, and then for each one that is added. It is also paid per person, per suitcase and in the event that you do not pay in cash.

Finally, as we said at the beginning, Tegel Airport stopped working and its operations moved to the new airport: Berlin Branderburg Airport.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport

berlin branderbug

First you have to say that part of this new airport is old and belongs to the old Schönefeld Airport which was built to be the airport of Soviet Berlin after World War II. Its architecture says a lot about those '40s. Its IATA code is SXF and it is almost 18 kilometers southeast of Berlin, near the city of Schöefeld, in what used to be East Berlin.

If you arrive in the German capital in low cost airlines like Ryanair or Jet Smart you will arrive here. The place has four terminals and it is not as compact an airport as Tegel used to be. For this reason, it is always convenient to have the map so as not to get lost, and luckily, although relatively recently, there are signs in English today.

Schönefeld Airport

Former Schönefeld Airport (now a terminal of the new one), open 24/XNUMX but only some people can be inside between 10 pm and 6 am. What services do you offer? There is a tourist office, shops, restaurants, exchange houses, ATMs and also the BVG machines for public transport that sell tickets.

What means of transport connect the airport with Berlin? Well, the most comfortable thing here is the train, which was not available at Tegel Airport. From the airport itself you can use the S-Bahn and regional trains, you just have to walk quite a bit and pay attention to the signs. The train is the easiest and cheapest way to move to or from the airport and there are many lines that connect you to the center.

The train ride is 40 minutes more or less and the trains usually have service every 20 minutes. The regional trains, the RE7 or the RB14, connect the city with the airport more quickly, without so many intermediate stops, and they run from 4 am to 11 pm. You reach Alexanderplatz in just 20 minutes, for example.

Schönefeld Airport

However, Schönefeld Airport is a little further away, outside zone B, when in general, including Tegel, everything is within zone AB. That is why you must buy an ABC ticket at the machines and validate it on the platform before getting on the train. Obviously, taxis are also present. Many lines wait for their passengers outside the main terminal and the trip, for about 40 or 50 euros, can last 35 minutes.

Now yes, we come to Berlin's newest airport: the Berlin Branderburg Willy Brandt International Airport. This airport took years and years to build. It had many delays and lots of money invested and it was only inaugurated in October 2020.

Berlin Airport

Finally, the air traffic of Berlin has been concentrated here and it is estimated that it deals with 35 million passengers per year.

You have three terminals being T1 the main one, T2 the one for low-cost airlines connected with pedestrian corridors and the T5 which is none other than the Schönefeld airport The same one that connects with the others by train, bus or taxi in less than 10 minutes.

It has five car parks and three ground level car parks, in Terminals 1 and 2. All have toilets, stairs and elevators and luggage carts available. also monitors with information about flights.


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  1.   Mariela Lane said

    Hello, thank you very much for the information. It has already been corrected. Have a good day and again, thanks for your contribution.