- Over 3 million vacationers are logged by BER during the holiday season.
Despite some initial hiccups, the summer vacation traffic at BER, the capital's airport, went swimmingly from the perspective of those in charge. As anticipated, around 3.6 million travelers utilized the airport at Schoenefeld throughout the approximately six-week summer holiday period in Berlin, which was about 200,000 more than the prior year, as declared by the airport.
"We're incredibly pleased with the progress and procedures during the summer holidays," stated airport CEO Aletta von Massenbach. "I'm especially delighted that the baggage claim times, particularly in the late evening hours, have greatly improved and in most instances met our standards."
Most travelers waited no longer than 30 minutes for their luggage.
In 90% of all arrivals, it took no longer than 30 minutes for the baggage claim to commence. For less than 1% of arrivals, it took more than an hour for the baggage carousels to commence functioning.
The busiest day was last Friday, with roughly 84,000 individuals flying via BER. The operators anticipate a similar number of travelers for this Friday. "In total, we estimate around 230,000 passengers from Friday, August 30, to Sunday, September 1," it was revealed.
BER prepared for the summer holiday rush with the deployment of relief teams, facial recognition at check-in, and the availability of bookable slots for security checks. According to von Massenbach, these concepts were successful. "The cooperation with all process partners has been exceptional."
The initiation of holiday traffic at BER was marred by some challenges, which, however, were not exclusive to Schoenefeld. Global computer problems at the start of the Berlin holidays in July led to widespread disruptions, particularly in air travel.
There were issues at numerous airports, and even administrations reported difficulties. The airport in Berlin briefly halted operations. In other countries, as per media reports, the functioning of banks and hospitals was also impacted. However, air travel at BER returned to normal the following day.
In comparing the current summer vacation traffic to previous years, BER has seen an increase of about 200,000 travelers, making up for a significant other portion of the total number. Despite the global computer issues causing disturbances, BER managed to quickly recover and continue its operations smoothly.
