In what is descending into farce, it seems that the opening of Berlin Brandenburg Airport has now been delayed indefinitely.
The airport was due to open on 27th October 2013, but it seems this has been put back again.
Currently, the airport’s opening has been shifted 3 times already and is already 2 years late in opening.
Details are thin on the ground but according Sebastian Rudolph – there are problems
“certain problem areas, with the fire protection system being the biggest problem”
“The situation is serious,
This was the first issue that scuppered the opening last year, and appears not to be fixed still.
The German News outlet: Bild states the problems are due the fire system being built in a different way from what was specified on its building permit
Unsurprisngly, both Air Berlin and Lufthansa – the anchor tennants who are crammed into Tegal are not amused. Air Berlin says
airberlin is disappointed about the latest postponement of the opening date for the new airport Berlin-Brandenburg BER. This will have an adverse effect on all passengers and on airlines. airberlin has already insisted many times on receiving a reliable opening date which can therefore be planned around. A renewed postponement means that the unsatisfactory situation for all passengers will continue.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa has kept quiet for now, although you can suspect what words are being uttered in various parts of the airline.
The cost of the project has also risen, from the initial €2 billion to more than €4 billion, with the possibility that it may rise further.
All in all, what was meant to be a brand new facility for the capital of Germany has turned into a farce that makes some airport developments look… on time.
Lufthansa is staying quiet and smiling all the way to the bank. LH can make TXL work indefinitely. The last thing in the world that LH needs is more hubs, their hubs are in FRA and MUC. So Berlin is an O/D market for LH, and TXL can largely meet LH’s needs. It is AB who are hobbled as TXL doesn’t work well for connections and doesn’t have the capacity for AB to build into a true hub operation.
It is also a farce that BER was built so small to start with. Did no one do a 20-year projection to decide what capacity was needed? It almost sounds like they need to go back to the drawing boards and design from scratch. Maybe they can incorporate some of the existing structure after fixing the fire safety systems.
How about reopening the beautiful Tempelhof airport 😉
Carl, now there’s a suggestion (though I highly doubt that’ll ever happen).
Ahh. Tempelhof. Now there was a nice little airport (I remember doing it in a ContiFlug BAe 146 from LCY and back when I was a lot greener).
Happy days when life was a lot simpler…
Meanwhile, I agree with Carl – LH is now just playing the waiting game with AB. If anything the non-opening of BER is affecting their ability to operating and expand.
Also considering who is in charge of AB now… well… I wouldn’t invest a penny in the company…