From this week, travellers through Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) can no longer reserve fast-track security slots via the ‘BER Runway’ portal. Airport management quietly de-activated the free booking tool at 00:00 on 26 May after data showed that 90 percent of passengers who pre-booked a slot ended up skipping it and using the standard lanes instead. The reversal reflects a wider technology upgrade: Terminals 1 security zones 1 and 5 are now fully equipped with CT scanners that allow electronics and up to two litres of liquids to stay in hand luggage. Those lanes process passengers markedly faster than the older X-ray machines installed at the separate Runway checkpoint, making the reserved route less attractive. Introduced in August 2022 to tame post-pandemic queues, BER Runway handled about five million reservations over 20 months and was praised by frequent flyers and mobility managers for giving expatriates on tight itineraries a predictable dwell time. Its demise therefore matters to corporates that had embedded Runway links in pre-trip approval workflows or traveller apps.
![Berlin Brandenburg Airport Axes ‘BER Runway’ Security Slot Service]()
While reviewing travel processes, organisations and individual jet-setters may also want to double-check visa formalities; VisaHQ’s Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) offers up-to-date entry requirements, expedited processing options and real-time status tracking that slot neatly into corporate booking tools, ensuring paperwork never becomes the bottleneck even as security procedures evolve.
BER says the checkpoint area used by Runway will receive the same CT technology by autumn 2026, at which point a re-launch “will be evaluated”. In the interim, the airport has added real-time wait-time displays to its website and is urging tour operators to advise groups to arrive earlier during summer peaks. Travel-risk teams should update guidance for VIPs accustomed to guaranteed 10-minute security times and monitor whether the new CT lanes can absorb holiday-season volumes without resurrecting long lines.
While reviewing travel processes, organisations and individual jet-setters may also want to double-check visa formalities; VisaHQ’s Germany portal (https://www.visahq.com/germany/) offers up-to-date entry requirements, expedited processing options and real-time status tracking that slot neatly into corporate booking tools, ensuring paperwork never becomes the bottleneck even as security procedures evolve.
BER says the checkpoint area used by Runway will receive the same CT technology by autumn 2026, at which point a re-launch “will be evaluated”. In the interim, the airport has added real-time wait-time displays to its website and is urging tour operators to advise groups to arrive earlier during summer peaks. Travel-risk teams should update guidance for VIPs accustomed to guaranteed 10-minute security times and monitor whether the new CT lanes can absorb holiday-season volumes without resurrecting long lines.
