For those of you who missed yesterdays news, Berlin Brandenburg Airport won’t be opening on the 3rd of June as planned, and has been put back to late 2012.
Air Berlin have been.. well seething to put it blunt.
A new PR from the company came out regarding the chaos, with an operation task force to try and make Berlin-Tegel work.
For passengers, nothing changes for now, with all bookings remaining valid at this time.
Airberlin will contact all affected passengers personally to inform them about their flights. The same applies to passengers on the scenic flights which have been organised to mark the move to the new airport.
With over 1 million passengers to inform, this is no mean feat.
Hartmut Mehdorn, the CEO of airberlin states:
“The situation is extremely tricky, as we have to contact at least one million passengers individually to inform them about their airport of departure or arrival. In addition, airberlin’s expanded and more ambitious flight schedule, planned for BER, now has to be handled using the old infrastructure at Tegel Airport, in the summer season, of all times”
“We must apologise to our passengers for this temporary arrangement; we ourselves are finding it difficult to live with.”
“We are still looking forward to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, where we will be able to provide our passengers with a much improved service, But to do this, we need a new and reliable date for the opening of the airport, preferably after the end of our summer schedule.”
What a mess. How the heck they’re going to squeeze into Tegel has yet to be explained.
Nothing yet from Lufthansa who had hoped to launch a major hub on the 3rd June at the new BER. Squeezing them into TXL is going to be yet another challenge. Suffice to say, a lot of red faces are out there… and the planning departments of both airlines must be in overdrive trying to rescue a timetable – of sorts.
Whatever happens, they’d both better have something concrete before the 3rd June. Or chaos will REALLY hit…
I was to fly out on the 4th to Paris on LH. This isn’t going to be fun.
I’d hang on – looks like they’re going to be running something. What – only the planners only know.
Expect a telephone call from AB shortly.
Tegel, not Tegal. 🙂
BER is replacing two old airports that both will continue to operate, so that probably will help with handling the traffic.