Lufthansa Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Carsten Spohr has spoken in support of a single airport for Berlin, rather than maintaining Berlin Tegel once Berlin Brandenburg is opened. Spohr's remarks come a week after Ryanair's Chief Marketing Officer, Kenny Jacobs, came out in support of Tegel.

In a conversation with Berliner Morgenpost, Spohr said that having two airports causes confusion. "Experience has shown that it is more efficient for all involved if all flight operations take place in one location," he said. "Otherwise the question quickly arises: Who flies from which airport?"

Spohr admitted that the delays in opening Berlin Brandenburg International have led to "a material loss in the single-digit millions" for Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International), but adds that he's more embarrassed from an engineer's perspective at the hold-ups. The new airport had originally been scheduled to open to commercial operations in 2011, but successive technical hiccups have scuppered those plans. The latest delay, meaning the airport is unlikely to open in 2017, was related to problems with sprinkler systems and automatic doors.

Supporters of Berlin Braucht Tegel – "Berlin Needs Tegel" – say that the new airport will not have sufficient capacity to handle the 32.9 million passengers per year that Berlin's two airports currently serve. In its first phase, it will only have a capacity of 27 million annual passengers.