In 2017, the airport handled 12.9 million passengers by serving mainly European metropolitan and leisure destinations.

[8] On 15 October 1934, construction began to build three 800 metres (2,600 ft) long runways to serve the Henschel aircraft plant in Schönefeld.

[citation needed] A stipulation of the Four Power Agreement following World War II was a total ban on German carriers' participation in air transport to Berlin, where access was restricted to American, British, French, and Soviet airlines.

[citation needed] Berlin Schönefeld Airport saw a major increase in passenger numbers over recent years, which was caused by the opening of bases for both easyJet and Germanwings.

At the start of the winter season in 2012 Germanwings left Schönefeld for Berlin-Tegel to maintain closer operations within the Lufthansa Group there.

[9] However, to provide competition for Ryanair's new routes, Germanwings announced a return to Schönefeld in addition to their Tegel operations from October 2015.

[11] Meanwhile, Ryanair announced the establishment of their sixth German base in Schönefeld by 27 October 2015 by deploying five aircraft to the airport and adding 16 new routes.

Terminal Q had no check-in facilities; it was used exclusively for passengers clearing security checks to enter the airside boarding gates.

There are some shops, however, including duty-free, newsstands, a few fast food restaurants, and a single airline lounge.

Terminal B, located in a side wing, was originally reserved for transit passengers to and from West Berlin who took advantage of cheaper airfares and package tours arranged by an East German travel agency.

The airside consisted of three jet bridges as well as several walk-boarding aircraft stands located at Pier 3a, an extension that was opened in 2005.

Being nearly identical to Terminal C at Berlin Tegel Airport, it featured check-in counters M40–M57, which were mainly used by Ryanair, Condor, and Norwegian Air Shuttle.

In November 2016, the new 4,500-square-metre (48,000 sq ft) large arrivals area D2 opened right next to Terminal D.[15] Prior to its closure as an independent airport, Schönefeld had been served mostly by low-cost and leisure carriers with easyJet, Ryanair, Condor, and Wizz Air offering the most destinations.

The airport did not see any long-haul traffic but did serve several dozen routes to European metropolitan and leisure destinations around the Mediterranean.

Only a few legacy carriers preferred Schönefeld over Tegel Airport, most notably Aeroflot, El Al and Egypt Air.