Airports aren’t usually places people describe as thoughtful. You show up, you queue, and you wait to leave. It’s not hostile, just a bit mechanical. Berlin Brandenburg Airport wants to rewrite that feeling.
Christian Draeger, who runs passenger experience there, talks about it in a way that’s surprisingly down-to-earth. “We’re not just starting at the airport door,” he says. “We’re already looking at customers, how they can get prepared for their travel, even days ahead of the actual travel plans.”
That’s a different way of thinking about travel, one where the airport is part of the journey, not a pause in it. Draeger’s rule is simple: “Put the passenger in the center.”
That idea is becoming more important. Around two-thirds of travelers now use AI tools to plan their trips, and most say they want services that adjust to them, not the other way around. Berlin’s answer is to mix technology with empathy, using automation to remove hassle, not humanity, and turn the everyday airport routine into something that actually works for people.
Understanding & Designing for the Modern Traveler
Christian Draeger has spent a lifetime around airports. More than thirty years in aviation have given him a deep sense of how people move, wait, and connect. During his time with Star Alliance, he helped shape what millions of passengers now recognize as the modern travel experience. When he joined Berlin Brandenburg Airport, he came in ready to rethink that experience from the ground up.
Berlin handles around 25 million passengers a year, so it’s big enough to be busy, but small enough to still care. “We also operate our premium services: two business-class lounges and an ultra-premium lounge where you get à la carte dining and a chauffeur service to the aircraft,” Draeger said.
That same care for detail extends to the parts of the journey most people barely notice. The airport also took control of its own security operations, because, as Draeger puts it, “We felt that the mandate of the federal police didn’t provide enough attention towards the passenger experience.”
Now there are 32 security lanes, 24 fitted with advanced CT scanners, so passengers can keep laptops in their bags and carry small amounts of liquid without delay. “It’s about having a consistent experience across the whole area of the airport,” he says.
Every choice is made with the passenger in mind. “It starts really by knowing our customers,” Draeger says. “If we have a family that’s traveling once a year on holiday, their prerogatives are different from a business-class customer focused on getting through as efficiently as possible.”
That balance, efficiency for some, discovery for others, is at the heart of personalization in travel, and it’s essential. A recent study found that 93 percent of travelers now expect some form of tailored service. Berlin’s approach proves those numbers translate into real-world design decisions: better security flow, less queuing, and even duty-free areas reimagined as “specialized marketplaces.”
Dual-Terminal Strategy: Two Philosophies, One Vision
A walk through Berlin Brandenburg Airport reveals something a bit different. Its two terminals don’t just separate airlines; they reflect two completely distinct types of travelers. One is designed for comfort, the other for speed. Together, they show how personalization in travel can be built into the physical space, not only into digital systems.
“The level of automation that you will find with low-cost carriers is more in focus than with a legacy carrier,” says Draeger. Terminal 2 is the efficient, minimalist one: smaller, sharper, and geared toward travelers who value simplicity and price over perks. “Terminal 2 is geared to simplicity and generating additional revenues through add-on services,” he explains.
Think self-service kiosks, intuitive wayfinding, and a layout that helps people move quickly from curb to gate. “The utilization of busses is less, you have more walk boardings,” he adds.
Terminal 1, meanwhile, is a different rhythm altogether. “It’s about efficiency and comfort, both guided by digital tools.” Business and frequent flyers pass through airport automation that’s designed to make the process seamless. Over a hundred self-service kiosks are spread across the terminal, complemented by digital signage and premium lounges.
It’s the physical version of a digital truth: no two passengers want the same thing. Some want to breeze through with a coffee and a boarding pass on their phone. Others want time, space, and a glass of something cold before they fly. Both deserve an experience that feels intentional.
That’s what Berlin is building, a new kind of airport customer experience where infrastructure itself becomes a form of personalization. Different terminals, different tools, same philosophy: know who’s traveling, and design accordingly.
AI and Automation Enhancing Personalization in Travel
Like most airports, Berlin once relied on a traditional call center. It worked, but just barely. “We were looking at our call center and we weren’t completely happy,” says Draeger. “It was limited, inconsistent, and expensive.”
That frustration turned into an opportunity. Berlin decided to replace its call center entirely with a generative AI-powered system. The result was “Berry”, Berlin’s always-on virtual assistant.
“Customers can call the AI hotline and have a conversation just like we’re having right now,” Draeger says. It took just six weeks to build and launch, and within a few months, the results were striking: satisfaction above 85 percent, costs down 65 percent, and service available 24/7.
The human element didn’t vanish; it just found a new home. Instead of waiting in phone queues, travelers get answers right away. Lost something? Need flight details? Berry, the airport’s AI agent, takes care of it and loops in a person if the question needs a human touch. It’s simple to use too: one phone number on Berlin Airport’s website connects straight to Berry.
Building the AI Layer with Berry
Behind the scenes, Berry learns fast. “After six to eight weeks we reached an acceptable level… then you could see week-to-week improvements as GenAI learned,” Draeger explains. His team fed the system with real passenger questions and prioritized the most urgent topics first, like the classic “I left my laptop on the aircraft.” “We prioritized major customer concerns to ensure correct routing from day one,” he says.
Now the airport is preparing for the next step, chat. “We want to also offer the ability to get in touch with our AI agent through chat functionality,” says Draeger. QR codes will soon appear throughout the terminals, linking passengers directly to Berry via chat, integrated into the website and app. “If you’re standing in the arrivals hall, we’ll know based on the QR code where you are, and tailor the information accordingly.”
The idea is to build truly contextual assistance: a passenger in departures might ask about gate directions or restaurants, while someone at baggage reclaim could get help locating transport or lost luggage. “Customers can switch between voice and chat depending on environment or age. My children would prefer to talk; someone in a crowded terminal might prefer to chat,” Draeger says.
Operational AI and the Quest for Seamlessness
A lot of what makes Berlin Brandenburg Airport work isn’t something you can see. It happens on the tarmac between the terminal and the runway, where planes turn around for their next flight, and timing is everything.
“We also have others more on the ramp side,” says Draeger, referring to a system the airport now uses to track ground operations in real time. Cameras watch every stage of the turnaround, feeding data to an AI that predicts how long the process will take and where it might go wrong. “They can predict turnaround durations and steer additional resources if required,” he explains. “If a baggage belt is missing upon arrival, they can autonomously act on that and resolve bottlenecks.”
This is the kind of work that truly shapes the airport customer experience. When flights leave as scheduled, lines move faster, and connections fall into place without drama. Most travelers never think about the coordination behind it all. Yet every new piece of technology adds a layer that must fit perfectly with the rest.
But every new layer of technology brings its own challenge. “We always want to have this seamless experience for our customers,” Draeger says. “As we introduce more technology, we’ll have the challenge of combining it with legacy systems.”
Airports, after all, are built to last, and that means old baggage systems, decades-old software, and miles of wiring that can’t just be swapped overnight. “Traffic is increasing significantly, and we have limited infrastructure,” he adds. “We need simpler processes and better technology to absorb growth.”
Behind the polished front end of any airport automation project lies a balancing act: new tools talking to old systems, innovation working around concrete and cables.
The Future for Personalization In Travel: Digital Handholding
When asked what he thinks the future of travel looks like, Christian Draeger doesn’t mention drones or driverless terminals. He talks about something far simpler: help that is steady, thoughtful, and personal. “We always like to call it digital handholding,” he says. “A digital entity that’s completely informed, taking the customer by the hand and guiding them through the journey.”
Many agree that this is exactly where AI in the travel industry is heading. Gartner predicts that more than 80% of all customer interactions will be AI-assisted by 2029. The difference now is how personal that assistance can become.
“In the future, we see customers having their own personalized digital agents,” Draeger says, “on mobile, VR glasses, or other interfaces.” Those agents will be able to do a lot. “They’ll be able to rebook flights, change hotels, handle issues,” he explains. “We’ll need to provide them with the knowledge base and interconnectivity so they can act.”
He describes a world where these personal assistants talk to each other. “We’ll see a marketplace developing for agent-to-agent interaction,” he says, a network where your digital travel companion can speak directly to an airline, a hotel, or even the airport itself to smooth out the details before you notice them.
Some of that is already visible in small ways. Berlin is already imagining using augmented reality to help people find their way through the terminal. “If you come to Berlin Airport, sometimes you’ll find too many information boards,” Draeger admits. “Imagine augmented reality guiding you through the airport.”
It’s easy to see where this leads: toward an airport customer experience that blends technology with intuition. The idea isn’t to overwhelm passengers with data, but to take away the stress of travel entirely.
Personalization in Travel and Airports as Experience Ecosystems
Christian Draeger talks about air travel the way some people talk about music, not as noise and movement, but as rhythm. Airports, he says, are meant to keep that rhythm steady. When they do, everything else feels effortless.
“It’s all about making travel easier,” he says. “Like when you take a train, you just arrive and go, that’s the overarching ambition.”
Mostly, Berlin Brandenburg Airport is just pushing for a calmer travel experience. From the moment a traveler checks in to the moment they leave the gate, the goal is to take away the small frictions that make airports stressful. Berry, the AI voice agent, is part of that. So are the self-service kiosks, the CT-scan security lanes, and the quiet bits of software that keep aircraft turning on time.
“It’s not about one technology: Gen AI, robotics, biometrics, or AR,” Draeger says. “It’s about combining them to make travel much simpler.”
That line sums up Berlin’s whole approach to personalization in travel. It isn’t about showing off what technology can do; it’s about how little the traveler has to notice it.
That’s the real future of airport customer experience: an ecosystem that looks complicated underneath but feels beautifully ordinary on the surface, the kind of simplicity only achieved when someone’s been obsessing over every detail on your behalf.
