In news that should surprise… well… no-one at all, Berlin Brandenburg Airport will not open 2014 in any form at all.
This includes the vain hope of running some flights from a small part of the new airport.
Mayor Klaus Wowereit of Berlin, who is also head of the supervisory board of the airport has gone on the record saying
“It will, de facto, be such that the airport no longer can be opened in 2014”
Ouch.
The airport had hope to handle a massive 10 arrivals/departures a day from March 2014, but even this vague hope has evaporated.
Berlin Brandenburg was due to open in July 2012, with airlines happily preparing for the move, and for Air Berlin to have some major breathing space – something it currently hasn’t got at Tegel. However, problems with the fire safety system as well as construction errors have pushed delay on delay on delay, as well as pushing up the costs from a €1.2billion to an estimate €6Billon
No date has been set when even part of the airport will be open to traffic.
Meanwhile, Tegel and Schöenefeld are groaning through this, as more airlines come in to operate services.
This is just going to go and on, until the airport opens. IF it opens…
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No surpirse given the scale of wholesale ineptitude and corruption involved. And the German taxpayer is hapless and helpless. I’ll go out on a limb and say second half 2015 to first half of 2016 for an opening. Many Berliners would like Tegel to stay open permanently. Having flown there it is very convenient, but Tempelhof was better still.
My wife and I went to Europe in July 2012 for a big celebratory vacation. The initial plan was to fly into Berlin Brandenburg which was supposed to be open at the point we booked our tickets. It caused me to have to rework our ground travel plans at the last minute when the thing didn’t open.
It’s crazy that going on 2 years later the airport still isn’t open…
Overall, given the local situation, the money involved and static problems with the ground underneath SXF/BER, I pretty much doubt this airport will EVER be going into full service. This is rather going to be a partly functional, permanent construction site.
I think the better solution would have been to use a Tegel/Tempelhof combo instead of BER, which, at this rate, might open some time in 2019