Berlin new airport BER opening delayed?
 

The new Berlin airport BER might not open June 3rd due to fire protection certification issues. The terminal seems not to be completed enough to be formally certified yet. Delay looks like at least to august or september.

No official statement yet. Press conference this afternoon.

Verzögerung bei Eröffnung des neuen Berliner Flughafens? - FLUG REVUE

The airport is to have an open day (this weekend?) to test all the systems.

Wonder if we'll see some of the routes that were due to be launched from the Berlin area actually starting at Schonefeld instead ? Perhaps Lufthansa could open a lounge at Schonefeld as well ? :E

It's official now. "Der Spiegel" reports that "a new opening date shall be approached after the Summer break." Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg (BER): Eröffnung im Juni verschoben - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Oh er Missus :ooh:

My Google translation of the Der Spiegel article includes the following...

"That was more than a nasty surprise," said Brandenburg Minister President Matthias Platzeck (SPD). "I do not deny that I'm pissed, so a surprise may just not happen before."

And I'm sure he is! :O

Does anyone know how much time in the programme was set aside for testing and commissioning the system? Not leaving long enough for this element is often an issue that comes back to haunt the opening of new terminals...eg T5 and baggage..

Suzeman

I would have expected the Germans to do better than this!

Second half of august is the new opening target timeframe Ministerpräsident Platzeck said. So just ahead of ILA. The networking of the smoke evacuation system's sections would not work properly yet so it couldn't get certified in time.

However hickups with airport openings are not entirely unheard of aren't they? T5 anybody or Denver back then?

Try asking the bmi employee's that have lost a pension :ugh::ugh:

BA deal can't stop BMI pension scheme being shifted into protection fund | Mail Online

Me too, and i'm one. However berlin is very special. Just to give an idea about the timeframes: the airport was planned in 1992, should have opened around 2000 and is now nearly finished and already below the needed capacity.

Berlin Tegel already cannot cope with traffic as it is as quite a bit of handling machinery has been transported to the new airport already. Waiting 40 minutes for a push back truck is now normal during peak hours, as well as blocking the airport for 20 to 30 minutes because no marshaller is available to lead one into parking positions, not to mention someone to connect the stairs or drive the passenger busses.

Lufthansa planned to increase their route network by over 50% with the opening of the new airport in june and supposedly can do that from tegel. There is no chance in hell that tegel can cope with that amount of additional traffic. All airlines flying from and to berlin have a new flight schedule from june on for the new airport, most increased their capacity, those flights of course are already sold. That will bring in a lot of law suits as those flights cannot be operated.

Indeed I am in shock :oh:

Wonder what the Sun or the Daily Mail will have to say about this tomorrow morning...

Krauts miss their vloghaffn opening date.
Los Los now!

Sadly this kind of thing is not that unusual in Germany. Anyone remember the fiasco with the road toll system? There will however be people rubbing their hands with glee, particularly those paid to fix the problem. It is going to be an interesting (and expensive) summer in Berlin. Expect project management standard behavior: punish the innocent, reward the non participants!

Have worked in Germany and indeed in Berlin and these issues are not uncommon on large capital project as has been said eg Rhine - Danube link canal ran years late, however at least it was done unlike LHR 3rd runway !:rolleyes:.
Have to say that canceling this late is unusual and I would have thought that these inspections from my knowledge would have been on a rolling program so you would have known somthing was wrong earlier than this late date. Will make enquiries with our German suppliers and competitors to try and find out more as some where on this project :hmm:.

Anyone wanna bet the opening will coincide with the Berlin Air Show now:\

Now if there was an airport near the centre that aircraft could taxy on and off stand..............:E:E

Mr Angry - certainly a possibility. On the one hand it means extra publicity with all the assembled industry bigwigs in town. On the other hand whenever a major new airport opens it gets plenty of publicity anyway - so would coinciding be a major gain ?

Furthermore if BER management want to coincide they need to be *very* sure that everything will work correctly.
If it coincides and goes wrong it's a major piece of bad publicity with everyone watching and a lot less slack in the system to fix foul ups.

Perhaps better to go for a slightly quieter launch and present it as a model of solid German efficiency (the 'made in Germany' brand) while doing their best to fix inevitable teething problems ?

This is a shame - I thought BER was going to be the one new airport facility which was open in time for the Olympics!

It's not that bad. There is still RAF Gatow entirely unused.

Except for the housing estate on the western half of the runway of course.