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Suitcase towing at Terminal 2 at BER
Photo:
Patrick Pleul / dpa
A second terminal went into operation at Berlin Airport BER on Thursday.
The operators are thus preparing for increasing passenger numbers.
The first 189 passengers checked in at the terminal building around noon and, according to an airport spokesman, took off in a Ryanair plane bound for London.
The Irish airline will be the main user of Terminal 2, or T2 for short.
The building was ready when BER 2020 opened, but has not been used up until now.
It is designed for up to six million passengers a year.
The airport company expects a total of around 17 million passengers this year, around half as many as before the corona pandemic.
Relief in Corona times
T2 houses check-in, security control and baggage claim.
Passengers access the aircraft via bridges to the main terminal and its gates.
T2 is also needed because handling in the main terminal is taking significantly longer than planned under corona conditions.
Last year almost ten million passengers were counted at BER.
Before the corona crisis, the number of passengers at the then Berlin airports had risen to around 36 million in 2019.
The airport company therefore decided to expand BER with Terminal 2 at a construction cost of around 200 million euros.
atb/dpa
