Empty leg flights to and from Berlin

Berlin has one main airport for private jets, and it is a new one. Berlin Brandenburg, known by its code BER, opened in October 2020 on the site of the old Schönefeld airfield, about 18 kilometres south east of the city centre, and within days Tegel had closed for good. Almost every business jet flying between Britain and the German capital now uses BER, where private passengers are handled in a General Aviation Terminal of their own rather than in the main building.

The city fills that terminal with a particular kind of traffic. Politics, company headquarters, a busy calendar of trade fairs and a startup scene keep aircraft moving between Berlin and London through the working week, and the airport's night rules decide when those aircraft can arrive and leave. We plan every Berlin flight around those rules, with the slots, the handler and the car booked together.

Berlin sectors released right now

The board shows every sector we hold that lands at or leaves Berlin Brandenburg. If it runs short, sectors into Leipzig and Schönhagen follow beneath it, since both can serve a Berlin trip on the right day. Under the board sits the charter list, which prices the same cabins for a flight between Britain and Berlin on dates you choose, and that is the figure an empty leg has to beat before it saves you anything.

What keeps aircraft moving between Berlin and Britain

Berlin is not a holiday destination in the way that Nice or Ibiza is. Most private flights into the city are working trips, and the empty sectors follow the rhythm of the working week.

Supply is steadiest from Monday to Thursday and thins out on Fridays and Saturdays, the opposite of the Riviera. Grüne Woche, IFA and the start of the working year produce the strongest runs of sectors, and August is the quietest month.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport in detail

BER took fourteen years to build and opened nine years late, on 31 October 2020. It combines the southern runway, built new for the airport, with the rebuilt northern runway of the old Schönefeld airport, and it replaced both Schönefeld and Tegel, the city's main airport for decades.

The terminal for private flights is a separate building with its own apron, away from the crowds of Terminal 1 and reached by its own road, so the car stops a few steps from the door. It is the only place at BER where a private passenger is handled, and the handlers there take care of everything from the car to the aircraft steps.

The night rules at BER

The rules come from the airport's operating licence, confirmed by the Federal Administrative Court in 2011, and they are among the strictest at any large airport in Europe. No other rule at BER shapes a flight from Britain as much.

The General Aviation Terminal, seen by a passenger

At BER a private flight never touches Terminal 1. Every step takes place in the General Aviation Terminal, where a flight from Britain is cleared and its passengers are on their way into the city within minutes of the engines stopping.

What we arrange for a Berlin trip

• The slot comes first. A private flight into BER needs a slot for the landing and another for the departure, and in the morning and evening peaks they can be scarce. We ask for both when the aircraft is held, not when the contract is signed.
• We plan backwards from 23:30. Every evening arrival is timed to land with room to spare before the night rules begin, and if the schedule is tight we move the departure earlier rather than hope.
• We decide early where the aircraft waits. On a stay of several days the jet may park at BER, fly home or position elsewhere, and each choice changes the price. We compare them before quoting.
• The car is booked with the flight. A chauffeur meets the aircraft at the GAT, and for a group we add a van for the luggage. The driver has the flight number and follows any change in the landing time.
• We watch the fair calendar. In the week of ITB, IFA or Grüne Woche, hotels, cars and slots all run short, so we book them together and early.
• We keep a plan for bad weather. Fog and snow close BER only rarely, but in winter clearing ice from the wings can cost half an hour, and we build that into the timing of early departures.

The rules that decide a Berlin schedule

Four sets of rules shape every private trip to Berlin. None is difficult, but each has to be settled before the aircraft is booked.

What Berlin adds to the bill

Compared with the Riviera or the Alps, Berlin is inexpensive on the ground. The flight is almost all of the price, and the extras are small.

The German tax is modest next to its French equivalent. A party of six flying home from Berlin to London pays 78.18 euros in all, and nothing is due on the flight into Germany. The operator collects it and shows it on the invoice.

British duty is due on the outbound flight from the UK. Until the end of March 2027 a Berlin passenger pays 32 GBP on a jet weighing 5.7 to 20 tonnes and 142 GBP on anything larger. After that the distinction by weight goes, and every jet of 5.7 tonnes or more is charged the higher Band A figure of 146.63 GBP per head. A jet lighter than 5.7 tonnes, such as a Citation Mustang or a Phenom 100, pays no duty at all, and neither does a flight that starts in Jersey or Guernsey.

Hotels add the city tax to the bill at 7.5 per cent of the net room price. A room of 600 euros a night at one of the grand hotels on Pariser Platz or the Gendarmenmarkt therefore carries 45 euros of tax a night.

Schönhagen, Leipzig and the other airfields around Berlin

For almost every trip BER is the right answer. A few other airfields matter on particular days, and three famous names no longer do.

From BER to Mitte, the West End and Potsdam

The car from the GAT joins the A113 motorway almost at once and reaches the city ring, the A100, within about 15 minutes. The times below are by car in ordinary traffic, and the weekday peaks, from about 07:30 to 09:30 and 16:30 to 18:30, can add half as much again.

Two restrictions are worth knowing. Helicopters are almost never a practical way into Berlin, because the airspace over the government quarter is restricted and the city has few places to land, so the last part of the journey is by car. And on the days of the marathon in September, the half marathon in spring, big demonstrations and state visits, whole districts close to traffic, and the driver plans the route around them.

For anyone who prefers the train, the Airport Express has run to Berlin Hauptbahnhof in 23 minutes since the new Dresden line opened in December 2025, with up to four trains an hour from the station under Terminal 1. It is fast and cheap, but after a private flight few passengers use it, since the car is waiting at the terminal door.

Popular routes between the UK and Berlin, and which way they run empty

The figures in the table buy the entire aircraft rather than a single seat, at whatever its operator will accept for a flight that is happening in any case. The times run from wheels up to wheels down and do not include the drive into the city. Because the list mixes a Citation CJ3 with a Challenger 350 and several types between, a longer route can come out cheaper than a shorter one. Where the date is fixed and the discount is secondary, look at the charter list further up, which gives the full price of the same aircraft.

Sectors run in both directions, since operators position aircraft to and from Berlin alike. They come most often from Monday to Thursday, in the weeks of the big fairs and in the first weeks of the year, when the working calendar restarts.

Online calculator

If you want to see what your route would cost as a standard charter, so you have something to measure an empty leg against, use the calculator below. Fill in the airports, the dates and the number of passengers, add any preference on aircraft type, and we will send a written calculation by email or messenger. Please check your contact details carefully so that we can reply quickly.

The figure the calculator returns is an estimate for planning. The firm quote comes back from our consultants with the cost broken out line by line, and the price agreed there is the price written into the contract.

If you would rather skip the arithmetic, send us the route and the dates instead and a consultant will come back with both numbers, the charter price and any empty leg that fits.

Passports, customs and money in Germany

Every formality on a private trip to Berlin takes place in the General Aviation Terminal, with federal police for the passports and customs officers for the bags.

• Your passport. Germany looks at two dates: the passport must be less than ten years old when you land, and it must still have three months to run after your planned exit from Schengen. Check both dates before you fly, because a passport can pass one test and fail the other.
• The 90 day rule. A British visitor may spend up to 90 days in any 180 in Schengen without a visa, and days in Germany are added to days anywhere else in the area.
• The Entry/Exit System. It has been running at every Schengen border crossing since 10 April 2026. British travellers give fingerprints and a photograph on their first crossing, children under 12 give a photograph only, and the record then lasts three years.
• ETIAS. The EU travel authorisation has been announced but has still not started, and no date has been set. It is expected to cost 20 euros and to last three years.
• Customs allowances. German customs lets each adult arriving from the UK carry duty free up to 200 cigarettes, and either a litre of spirits or two litres of sparkling or fortified wine, plus four litres of ordinary wine, sixteen of beer and a further 430 euros in other purchases. Ham sandwiches, cheese and other meat or dairy food packed in Britain are confiscated at the border, and anyone holding 10,000 euros or more in cash has to tell the officers.
• VAT refunds. Germany charges VAT at 19 per cent. A visitor who lives outside the EU can reclaim it on goods bought in Berlin, with the export forms stamped by customs at the GAT before departure, so tell the handler before the day you leave.
• Going home. The UK limits on the way home are generous by comparison, with four litres of spirits, 18 of wine, 42 of beer and 200 cigarettes per adult, and 270 GBP of other goods for anyone arriving by private aircraft. Under the rules in force from 1 October 2026, cider is counted with beer and sparkling wine with still wine.
• Money. Germany uses the euro. Cards are accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops, but some smaller cafés and bars still prefer cash.

Empty leg calendar for Berlin, month by month

Berlin's calendar is set by trade fairs, politics and culture rather than by the weather, and the busiest weeks are often in winter.

The best value is usually on the days just after a big fair, when aircraft that brought the exhibitors in fly home, and in the middle of the week in spring and autumn, when the business traffic is steady and the city is at its most pleasant.

Three situations, three answers

Flying to Berlin with a dog or a cat

For Germany a dog or cat has to be chipped first and vaccinated against rabies at least three weeks before the flight, and an official vet must sign its animal health certificate within the ten days before it lands. Owners who live in Britain lost the right to travel on an EU issued pet passport on 22 April 2026. A dog can travel in the cabin of most private jets, and the handler arranges the check on arrival at the GAT.

The flight home decides the choice of aircraft. Coming back, the animal must travel with an operator that Britain has approved for pets, and a German vet has to treat a dog for tapeworm no less than one and no more than five days before landing, a step cats are spared. Mention the animal when you first enquire, so that we offer only suitable aircraft.

Questions about private flights to Berlin

Call +44 7857 574938 , message the same number on WhatsApp , or write to flight@empty-leg.co.uk . Say which hotel or office in Berlin you are heading for, when you would like to land and leave, how many people and cases are coming, and whether an animal is on board. Our answer sets matching sectors against their charter prices and shows how the slots, the night rules and the chauffeur at the GAT would work on your dates.