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The opening of the new Berlin airport on October 31 will take place without fanfare, operators say, a nod to long delays and huge cost overruns since construction began in 2006.
Airport chief Engelbert Luetke Daldrup admitted on Tuesday that the repeated postponement of the promised opening date in 2012, attributed to technical and construction problems, had made Berlin and Germany a “laughing stock.”
“We German engineers were embarrassed,” he told reporters in the capital.
The costs, which soared from an original budget of 2.7 billion euros (4.8 billion dollars) to almost 6 billion euros (10.6 billion New Zealand dollars), were “unacceptable,” acknowledged Luetke Daldrup.
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Soeren Stache / AP
After several canceled dates, the new Capital Airport BER is scheduled to open on October 31.
As such, the opening will be low-key, he said. “There will be no big party. We’re just going to open. “
Berlin Brandenburg Airport, also known simply as BER, will replace the city’s two small airports from the Cold War era, Schoenefeld and Tegel. The first will be used as a third terminal for the new adjacent airport, while the second will be closed permanently after 60 years of service.
Tegel, which was located in the French-controlled sector of West Berlin when it opened in 1960, will receive a farewell before it finally closes on November 8, Luetke Daldrup said. The final departure will be an Air France flight to Paris.
The new airport will be the third largest in Germany in terms of passenger numbers, behind Frankfurt and Munich.
Luetke Daldrup said operators fear that the coronavirus pandemic could mean that the record number of 36 million passengers who saw the two existing airports last year will not be reached again until 2024.
He called for more long-haul slots for the new airport to ensure that passengers from Asia and the Middle East can fly directly to Berlin.
