Berlin Airport is currently grappling with weak passenger volumes and expects to continue reporting net losses for several years despite posting operating profits. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) are projected to slump by a third to 136.2 million euros in 2026, airport operator FBB announced on Monday. The consolidated net loss is expected to widen to 106.1 million euros (compared to 86.1 million in 2025). According to the annual report, the losses are primarily driven by the 'underutilization of airport infrastructure resulting from persistently low passenger volumes'.

In 2019, prior to the Covid crisis, Berlin's Tegel and Schönefeld airports handled a combined 35.65 million passengers. Last year, the capital's BER airport saw only 26.1 million travelers. While this represented a slight year-on-year increase of 2.3 percent, and 26.5 million are projected for 2026, the fallout from the conflict in Iran and high aviation location costs in Germany have recently led to declining passenger numbers. Pre-pandemic traffic levels for international travel are likely not to be reached until the late 2020s, while total traffic, including domestic flights, is not expected to recover until the mid-2030s. 'Based on these projections, current planning assumptions anticipate overcoming the loss-making situation and achieving positive annual and consolidated results toward the end of the 2020s.'

On an operational level, BER managed to increase its earnings by more than a third to 203.9 million euros last year. However, legacy burdens - namely high debt levels and construction delays - continued to weigh on the bottom line, resulting in a net loss.

BER, which required a billion-euro bailout from its state owners during the pandemic, has since regained its financial footing. In November 2025, operator FBB tapped the capital markets without shareholder guarantees, securing a 1.2 billion euro refinancing package. Furthermore, shareholders provided a final capital injection of 500 million euros in February to repay legacy loans from the construction phase. 'Financial independence is the result of the consistent implementation of the partial debt relief plan agreed with shareholders in 2021,' explained airport CEO Aletta von Massenbach. 'We will continue on this path despite the highly challenging external pressures facing the aviation industry.'

(Report by Klaus Lauer, edited by Olaf Brenner. For inquiries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and economics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for corporate and markets).)