Lets go back to one of the biggest comedy pieces in aviation for some time. I’m not referring to delays of entry into service of new planes or even updates of planes… I’m of course referring to the biggest comedy of all… Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
The catalogue of errors make for a lesson in planning and budgeting. Originally meant to be open in 2011, this airport that was meant to take over from Berlin Schönefeld (which it currently shares the runways with) and Berlin Tegel airports.
So what’s changed? Well, not a lot. There has been some media speculation that the airport would be delayed again another six months (pushing into 2018), but the management of Berlin Brandenburg airport have stated:
“there are requirements regarding the completion of the smoke extraction system that also apply to the area of the delivery bays. As already reported by FBB, some of the milestones in the completion of BER are currently subject to delay. However, this issue is of no relevance to the overall planning, to the completion of the construction work in the second quarter of 2016 or to the planned opening of the airport in the second half of 2017 because these tasks are being undertaken in parallel.”
Well, that should brim you with confidence. Or not.
None the less, for some carriers who are constrained by their current facilities (namely Air Berlin), the sooner the opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport occurs – the better. Air Berlin have been trying to expand their Berlin operations, and are bursting out of the seems at Tegel.
Other airlines will watch carefully as they re-route their networks.
But the second half of 2017 isn’t that far away in infrastructure terms – a mere 2 and half years away.
I suspect there is still a lot of work to be done before this airport is ready for duty. Even then, when it finally opens Berlin Brandenburg Airport will be 6 years late…
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“But the second half of 2017 isn’t that far away in infrastructure terms – a mere 2 and half years away.”
The above is really nonsense — 2.5 years is enough to build an airport from scratch, entire subway lines, highways — when a competent authority is in charge. This project puts the lie to the myth of German government competence, and evidences that even in the absence of systemic corruption, the fact is that the public is in every instance better served with private companies, building privately owned and managed infrastructure projects. Let’s call this what it is, a massive government failure, for which nobody will be accountable.