Berlin-Brandenburg Airport (BER) ended 2025 on a high note, handling roughly 26 million passengers—about two percent more than the previous year and the strongest result since the hub opened in 2020. According to airport CEO Aletta von Massenbach, the growth came despite geopolitical headwinds and intermittent labour action in the wider aviation sector. Flight movements rose to 193,000, and the airport now hosts 70 airlines serving 130 destinations.
For the corporate-travel market, the biggest news is the wave of new long-haul capacity announced for the 2026 summer timetable. Air Canada will launch a thrice-weekly service to Montréal starting 3 July, Air Transat will expand its Toronto route to three weekly frequencies in May, and leisure carrier Condor plans daily flights to Abu Dhabi with Airbus A330-900neo aircraft. Eurowings, meanwhile, is branding itself the “Capital Express” and will base nine aircraft at BER, adding London, Lisbon and Sarajevo as year-round destinations and boosting frequencies to holiday hotspots such as Mallorca and Naples.
Business travellers tapping into these new routes can streamline visa formalities by partnering with VisaHQ, which offers fast-track processing for Canadian eTAs, UAE tourist visas and Schengen renewals—all with real-time tracking and dedicated corporate support. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/germany/.
![Berlin Brandenburg Airport Hits 26 Million Passengers in 2025 and Unveils New Long-Haul Links for 2026]()
The additional connectivity is welcome news for multinational firms with operations in Berlin and Brandenburg, many of which have struggled with limited transatlantic options since the pandemic. Travel-managers can expect improved redundancy on Canada routes (important for biotech and AI clusters), as well as new one-stop itineraries to the U.S. via Montréal. VisitBerlin, the city’s tourism promotion agency, forecasts a double-digit increase in Canadian visitor nights and says the expanded network will strengthen the capital’s bid to host large-scale conferences in life sciences and cleantech.
Cargo stakeholders also stand to benefit. Condor’s Abu Dhabi service opens a faster trade lane to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a region accounting for nearly €1 billion in annual Berlin-Brandenburg exports. Freight forwarders expect the route to shave at least 24 hours off typical door-to-door transit times for temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals and high-value machinery parts.
Infrastructure upgrades continue apace: a fourth security lane equipped with CT scanners will open in Terminal 1 before Easter, and Deutsche Bahn will increase ICE frequency on the Berlin–Hamburg and Berlin–Leipzig lines to feed early-morning departures. With passenger volumes projected to reach 26.5–27 million in 2026, BER’s management insists capacity expansion—rather than a return to the pre-pandemic mess at Tegel—is firmly under control, citing punctuality rates that now rival Munich’s. Corporations sending frequent travellers through the capital should nevertheless monitor slot allocation in peak summer weeks, when ad-hoc capacity caps remain a possibility.
For the corporate-travel market, the biggest news is the wave of new long-haul capacity announced for the 2026 summer timetable. Air Canada will launch a thrice-weekly service to Montréal starting 3 July, Air Transat will expand its Toronto route to three weekly frequencies in May, and leisure carrier Condor plans daily flights to Abu Dhabi with Airbus A330-900neo aircraft. Eurowings, meanwhile, is branding itself the “Capital Express” and will base nine aircraft at BER, adding London, Lisbon and Sarajevo as year-round destinations and boosting frequencies to holiday hotspots such as Mallorca and Naples.
Business travellers tapping into these new routes can streamline visa formalities by partnering with VisaHQ, which offers fast-track processing for Canadian eTAs, UAE tourist visas and Schengen renewals—all with real-time tracking and dedicated corporate support. More information is available at https://www.visahq.com/germany/.
The additional connectivity is welcome news for multinational firms with operations in Berlin and Brandenburg, many of which have struggled with limited transatlantic options since the pandemic. Travel-managers can expect improved redundancy on Canada routes (important for biotech and AI clusters), as well as new one-stop itineraries to the U.S. via Montréal. VisitBerlin, the city’s tourism promotion agency, forecasts a double-digit increase in Canadian visitor nights and says the expanded network will strengthen the capital’s bid to host large-scale conferences in life sciences and cleantech.
Cargo stakeholders also stand to benefit. Condor’s Abu Dhabi service opens a faster trade lane to the Gulf Cooperation Council, a region accounting for nearly €1 billion in annual Berlin-Brandenburg exports. Freight forwarders expect the route to shave at least 24 hours off typical door-to-door transit times for temperature-controlled pharmaceuticals and high-value machinery parts.
Infrastructure upgrades continue apace: a fourth security lane equipped with CT scanners will open in Terminal 1 before Easter, and Deutsche Bahn will increase ICE frequency on the Berlin–Hamburg and Berlin–Leipzig lines to feed early-morning departures. With passenger volumes projected to reach 26.5–27 million in 2026, BER’s management insists capacity expansion—rather than a return to the pre-pandemic mess at Tegel—is firmly under control, citing punctuality rates that now rival Munich’s. Corporations sending frequent travellers through the capital should nevertheless monitor slot allocation in peak summer weeks, when ad-hoc capacity caps remain a possibility.
