Berlin’s $7b airport finally opens in depths of a crisis

Bloomberg

Berlin’s new airport finally opened its doors, welcoming passengers after an eight-year delay just as fallout from the coronavirus hammers travel demand.
Planes from Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Easyjet Plc landed at Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport — known by its airport code BER — shortly after 2 pm on October 31 to inaugurate the hub. Regular departures started from November 1 with an early flight to London.
But the facility will just be a stunted version of the original plan. A second terminal won’t open for now because it’s not needed in the midst of the crisis. “No one would build a new airport now,” said Cord Schellenberg, a Hamburg-based aviation analyst.
“But maybe that’s the airport’s opportunity — it’s getting somewhat of a soft opening, giving authorities time to ensure all is running smoothly.”
The airport’s history is an embarrassing tale for Germany’s exalted reputation for punctuality and engineering prowess.
Construction started in 2006, and the planned launch in June 2012 was scrapped just weeks in advance, with moving trucks ready to roll and tickets issued.
Initially, authorities blamed the postponement on fire-safety issues, and claimed the hiccup would be fixed within a few months. But deeper planning disasters gradually came to light, and the opening was pushed back multiple times in the following years.
Defects included automatic doors that lacked electricity, escalators that were too short, and a smoke-extraction system so complex, yet ineffective, it was dubbed “the Monster.”
The project’s costs have tripled to more than 6 billion euros ($7 billion), and the fiasco contributed to the departure of Klaus Wowereit as mayor of Berlin.
The cancelled opening wounded stores, restaurants and hotels nearby, and hit airlines including Lufthansa and Air Berlin, which went bust five years later.
Aside from forcing Berlin travellers to land at aging Cold War facilities, the long delay created other hassles. To keep air flowing and limit mold growth, empty trains had been running through a deserted station in the basement of the facility’s glass-clad terminal.
Even with the pandemic, Berlin desperately needs a modern airport that reflects the city’s status as a bustling centre for technology startups and the capital of Europe’s biggest economy. It also surpassed Rome as Europe’s third-most visited city in 2014, increasing calls for a new facility.
The 1970s-era Tegel airport in the West — loved by many Berliners because of its central location and hectagon-shaped main Terminal, which allowed passengers to arrive straight
at their gates — will close. Schoenefeld, the dour former communist facility adjacent
to BER, will survive as its makeshift Terminal 5.
Despite being Germany’s largest city, Berlin is a secondary aviation market. Most international flights are routed through facilities in Frankfurt, Munich and other European hubs.
That’s unlikely to change, even if authorities updated BER’s plans to accommodate super-jumbo jets including the Airbus A380.
“BER has annoyed, disappointed, moved us — but now we can also be happy that it goes online,” said Germany’s Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer. “We will do everything that it becomes an international hub.”