Berlin looks to China, Southeast Asia as it opens new airport nine years late
- Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), located southeast of the German capital, was originally due to open in 2011
- Operators need to compete with rival international airports in Frankfurt and Munich
Thirty years after it was first planned and 14 long years after the groundbreaking ceremony in 2006 that marked the start of its troubled construction, Berlin’s new international airport will be unceremoniously opened on Saturday – more than nine years late and nearly triple its original costs.
Instead of cracking open champagne to toast the oft-delayed completion of one of Germany’s biggest-ever infrastructure projects, there will be only quiet sighs of relief when the first two planes – carrying Lufthansa and easyJet executives – land simultaneously on twin runways at the Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
Reflecting a new-found humility after the eight-year nightmare of bungling and delays that had the side effect of badly tarnishing Germany’s once-sterling reputation for engineering efficiency, the deliberately low-key opening will stand in sober contrast to a lavish grand ceremony for 40,000 government leaders and VIP guests planned for a June 2012 opening that had to be scrapped at the last minute – just a month beforehand as the airport’s price tag ballooned three-fold to US$7 billion.
“There were a lot of mistakes made and problems were greatly underestimated,” said Engelbert Luetke Daldrup, the airport’s CEO who took control of construction three years ago and managed to overcome sceptics to finish the airport named after former West German chancellor and West Berlin mayor Willy Brandt. Four hapless predecessors were fired or quit before he arrived.
The important cities in China need to be connected to Berlin
“We’re not going to have any opening celebration. We’re simply going to open. Obviously we’re all a bit euphoric now that we’re about to open after so many years of hard work,” Luetke Daldrup said.