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Shortly before the opening of BER, Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) hopes that the capital’s airport will soon need additional state aid.
The airport opens at a time when air traffic is going through the worst crisis in its history, Scheuer said Tuesday on RBB Inforadio. “For BER this means that we have to look closely at the economic plans for the next few years.”
The owners of the airport company – Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government – are already supporting the company with 300 million euros this year. A loan of around 550 million euros has been approved for next year.
“Berlin must be a center”
Politicians must now offer solutions, Scheuer said. These are related to emergency aid, also for BER. This will be discussed at a national air traffic summit on November 6.
The CSU minister promised to campaign for more international flights on BER. “I am in contact with the airlines. But there is still no light at the end of the tunnel because the airlines are downsizing. But Berlin is our capital, Berlin has to be a hub.” BER will open this Saturday nine years late.
Berlin Airport Director Engelbert Lütke Daldrup said: “Berlin must become a major international airport alongside Frankfurt and Munich.” Before the pandemic, we had very good conversations with several US airlines.
There is also a lot of interest in Asia: “In America we have to conquer the market. That is our turn. After Corona, that will also work because we finally have a good infrastructure.”
“The federal government has to help”
Political support is necessary in the Asian market. “We have very few flight rights to China, we have very few flight rights to the Middle East,” said Lütke Daldrup. “The federal government has to help. And when Mr Scheuer says that Berlin is becoming a hub, that’s the right message.”
However, it is not clear which airline could make the new capital’s airport one of its hubs. Market leader Lufthansa has no such plans. Long-haul flights to or from Berlin are not mentioned either.
In recent years, six opening dates for Germany’s third largest airport have been canceled. Planning errors, construction defects, technical problems, and personnel changes repeatedly delay the project. Around six billion euros were incorporated into BER, three times more than planned.
