The year 2024 has brought some changes to theinternational airport of Berlin Brandenburg (BBI). Since 1 January, the FBB airport management company has been responsible for passenger and baggage screening at the airport instead of the federal police force. It is therefore responsible for organising, managing, carrying out and financing aviation security checks.
Berlin's airport authority is thus the second largest airport after Frankfurt in Germany to carry out its own aviation security checks on passengers and baggage. This should bring benefits for travellers. The airport's main aim is to further reduce waiting times for passengers. At the same time, the safety of passengers and employees is given absolute priority.
New ultra-modern scanners
The plan is to gradually equip the airport's security filters with state-of-the-art control systems, known as CT-scanners. The first five of the 8 CT-scanners in terminal 2 are already in service.
The computed tomography used in CT scanners enables a wide range of materials and objects to be detected quickly and reliably. Passengers no longer need to remove liquids, smartphones and other electronic devices from their hand luggage.. These devices must also be installed in terminal 1.. Preparations for commissioning are underway.
For Aletta von Massenbach, CEO of the FBB, " By taking over these sovereign tasks, we can better plan our airport's processes and make them more efficient. The main objective remains to maintain the high level of aviation security." . The airport authority has entrusted security control to Securitas Aviation, which deploys nearly 1,800 agents for this purpose.
Passenger traffic recovery in 2023 remains anaemic
The airport has also published its figures for 2023. Although passenger numbers continued to recover last year, they are still well below the levels recorded before the Covid crisis.
All in all, 23.07 million passengers used Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in 2023, 3.22 million more than in 2022 (+16.2%). However, this figure is 35.2% (or 12.6 million fewer passengers) lower than in 2019. This is due in part to the sharp reduction in the presence of easyJet and Ryanair in Berlin due to high airport and air taxes. The airport is expecting to handle 25 million passengers by 2024..
