Opening date for Berlin Brandenburg?

The much-delayed Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) celebrated what it called a milestone last week with the topping-out of Terminal 2, with officials saying the facility is still on track to open in October next year – eight years behind schedule.

Construction workers put up a flower display to mark the occasion, which comes 10 months after the start of work on the building. Airport CEO Engelbert Lütke Daldrup said it was “the first important milestone".

The terminal, called T2, is expected to serve 6m passengers a year and will increase the total capacity of BER to 28-30m. Its topping-out also marks the start of final technical tests leading to the opening of the whole airport.

Airport operator Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH (FBB) said it had completed the “necessary preparations” for the start of operating principle tests. Daldrup said this confirmed the October 2020 opening was on schedule.

It was supposed to open by the end of 2011 (BTN 21 March 2016) but the inauguration was delayed several times because of a major redesign to comply with fire protection standards, among other factors. Costs have more than tripled from €2bn to €6.5bn.

www.berlin-airport.de

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum

Ray Hankin, Watton At Stone, UK

Good to see that the normally super- efficient Germans are suffering cost overruns as well as severe time delays. Makes one feel marginally better about the Crossrail fiasco.