New Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) has opened its second runway for scheduled commercial flights on Wednesday.
The inauguration of the southern runway was celebrated with the arrival of a Qatar Airways Airbus A350-900 from Doha at 9:50 am local time. The airline is flying to the new airport since Sunday, November 1st, normally using Boeing 787-8 aircraft – the A350 appears to have been a one off for the occasion.
On the same day, Lufthansa-owned low-cost carrier Eurowings, which is among the largest airlines in Berlin, moved its operations from Tegel Airport to the new Brandenburg Airport. This is the second of three phases in which airlines move from the old to the new airport. Tegel will close its doors on Sunday.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport started its operations over the past weekend, after 14 years of construction, including nine years of delays. Easyjet became the first airline to arrive at, as well as depart from the new terminal complex.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.