Berlin delayed again

Willy Brandt Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, the new hub for the German capital, looks set for yet another embarrassing delay.  Reports coming out of the city indicate that the latest opening date, 17 March 2013, is unlikely to be met.

The repercussions are serious.  Staff at the existing Berlin airport at Tegel do not know how to plan for the future, and of course the airlines are equally in a quandary.  Berlin’s other airport, Tempelhof, has already been closed, in spite of fierce opposition.

"The March opening date is very unlikely to be kept", a source with one of the company's three shareholders told Reuters,  asking to remain anonymous.  A representative of a second shareholder, speaking on condition of anonymity, also said that there was likely to be another delay.

Berlin's Tagesspiegel local newspaper and industry figures have speculated that another postponement was in the offing.

The opening was first pushed back two years ago – to 3 June  2012 – after delays linked to the fitting of new scanning systems.  Then with less than one month to go, that date was unexpectedly scrapped in May due to problems with fire safety systems. 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