Cottbus is on the list because BER is reachable and busy. 164 scheduled nonstop destinations and 66 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 1 hour 15 minutes of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Cottbus has a page of its own.
Open · Germany desk · Cottbus
On Board Courier, Cottbus
Time critical hand carry assignments from Cottbus. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 1 hour 15 minutes between your front door and the check in desk at BER.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inCottbus, Brandenburg
Nearest gateBER · Berlin
Drive to the aircraft105 km · 1 hour 15 minutes
Nonstop from BER164 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of BER, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 1 hour 15 minutes is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. The Gulf sector out of BER is nonstop, so there is no connection to miss.
Getting to the aircraft from Cottbus
Measured door to terminal, Cottbus to BER is 105 km and 1 hour 15 minutes. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Cottbus for a departure this evening.
At 1 hour 15 minutes the drive from Cottbus is the risky half of the trip, so it is planned rather than assumed: an earlier departure from home, and where the flight is early, a room near BER paid by the desk. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Cottbus. From Cottbus, Dresden is 1 hour 39 minutes away and flies to 16 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BER | Berlin Brandenburg | 105 km | 1 hour 15 minutes | 164 |
| DRS | Dresden | 102 km | 1 hour 39 minutes | 16 |
Cottbus is a city of 85,000 people in Brandenburg, and the clock there runs 2 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 3 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes. Only airports this site publishes a scheduled nonstop board for are listed, so a smaller field nearer Cottbus may exist and still not appear in the table above.
What BER reaches without a change
The relevant question about BER is not how big it is but what it flies. 164 nonstop destinations across 53 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA | Frankfurt-am-Main | Frankfurt-am-Main | about 16 departures a day | 3 operators: Lufthansa, Condor |
| ZRH | Zurich | Zurich Kloten | about 12 departures a day | 3 operators: easyJet, Eurowings, SWISS |
| PMI | Palma De Mallorca | Palma De Mallorca | about 12 departures a day | 3 operators: easyJet, Ryanair, Eurowings |
| CDG | Paris | Paris Charles de Gaulle | about 10 departures a day | 3 operators: easyJet, Air France |
| MUC | Munich | Munich | about 9 departures a day | 2 operators: Lufthansa |
| AYT | Antalya | Antalya | about 9 departures a day | 4 operators: easyJet, Pegasus Airlines |
| VIE | Vienna | Vienna Schwechat | about 8 departures a day | 1 operator: Austrian Airlines |
| AMS | Amsterdam | Amsterdam Schiphol | about 7 departures a day | 1 operator: KLM |
| LHR | London | London Heathrow | about 7 departures a day | 2 operators: Eurowings, British Airways |
| CPH | Copenhagen | Copenhagen Kastrup | about 7 departures a day | 4 operators: easyJet, Norwegian, SAS |
Counting every airport a courier in Cottbus can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 167 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
The industry inside this catchment
The industrial geography inside the BER catchment explains the deadlines. These facilities are publicly documented and are listed here as context for the work near Cottbus. None of them is described as a client of ours.
- Rolls-Royce, Dahlewitz. Business aviation engine assembly and test. Business jets are grounded in places with no spares. It sits on BER, which is 1 hour 15 minutes from Cottbus by road, and the sector is aerospace.
- Tesla, Gruenheide. Assembly and battery production for Europe. A young plant with a supply chain still finding its shape. It sits on BER, which is 1 hour 15 minutes from Cottbus by road, and the sector is automotive.
- Siemens Energy, Berlin and Muelheim. Gas turbine manufacture and service. A turbine out of service is a power station out of service. It sits on BER, which is 1 hour 15 minutes from Cottbus by road, and the sector is energy.
Why a courier in Cottbus is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Brandenburg is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to BER. Cottbus is near enough: 1 hour 15 minutes to BER, on a board with 164 nonstop destinations.
A consignment moving between Cottbus and the Gulf has a straightforward path. From Cottbus the Gulf is a single sector: BER and DWC are joined nonstop, a weekly departure, flown by scheduled carriers. That is roughly 5h 56m in the air over 4,600 km, and it means a consignment can leave Cottbus in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
The nearest other cities on the Germany list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Cottbus
Frankfurt an der Oder67 km away, BER in 1 hourGörlitz81 km away, DRS in 1 hour 22 minutesDresden89 km away, DRS in 33 minutesBerlin106 km away, BER in 45 minutesPotsdam112 km away, BER in 40 minutesChemnitz141 km away, DRS in 1 hour 11 minutesBrandenburg an der Havel142 km away, BER in 1 hour 8 minutesLeipzig143 km away, LEJ in 26 minutesDessau144 km away, LEJ in 44 minutesHalle165 km away, LEJ in 30 minutesZwickau172 km away, LEJ in 1 hour 31 minutesGera184 km away, LEJ in 1 hour 10 minutes
All 136 Germany cities are listed on the Germany courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of BER and the other airports listed above, between Germany and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 1 hour 15 minutes drive to BER. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach BER, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Cottbus list
01How far is Cottbus from BER?
About 1 hour 15 minutes, 105 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of BER tonight.
02What can I reach from Cottbus without a change of aircraft?
BER serves 164 airports nonstop across 53 countries with 66 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Cottbus can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 167 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Cottbus to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Cottbus the Gulf is a single sector: BER and DWC are joined nonstop, a weekly departure, flown by scheduled carriers. That is roughly 5h 56m in the air over 4,600 km, and it means a consignment can leave Cottbus in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Cottbus is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Cottbus list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of BER, one fee, agreed in advance. The 1 hour 15 minutes you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of BER
If you can be at BER within 1 hour 15 minutes and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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