Another year has gone by, but still nothing in the way of an announcement as to when the airport might be properly open.

Apart from Google, anyone have any info as to when/if the new Berlin airport will open to commercial scheduled passenger traffic ? I'm guessing we're looking at 2015 or later.

One thing is certain: the new Berlin airport (or SXF-plus to be accurate) will be open before LHR gets a third parallel rwy.

I can certainly see why Berlin needs a new airport. Had the misfortune to fly out of SXF this morning, and what a miserable experience it was. Of course being German it was clean and efficient but I can say nothing else in its favour. It was a potent reminder of why I travel by train whenever feasible.

The train from Alexanderplatz does a circuitous route to the airport, but only two intermediate stops and about 20 minutes. Then there is quite a long walk from the station to the terminal building. The terminal appears grossly over-capacity, at least at 0830, with huge but fast-moving queues, that German efficiency noch ein mal, and then once airside, throngs of people blocking the passageways, people sleeping and lying all over the place, and only one decent place to have a coffee or breakfast (Marché), which was packed and with a long queue snaking out of it and blocking access to the boarding gates, the other options being a very grubby looking Burger King or a massively over-crowded Irish Pub full of beer swillers early in the morning, nein danke!

The terminal was, I suppose, designed by the communist regime to serve Interflug and the Komrades heading off on their holidays to the resorts of Bulgaria and Romania in the days of the Iron Curtain.

But Berlin is a fantastic city, so much to see and do, excellent food, and friendly and helpful einwohner.

http://www.adv.aero/fileadmin/pdf/st...sstatistik.pdf
indicates TXL+SXF combined saw 26.3m passengers in 2013, an increase of 4.1% on 2012. If passenger numbers grow a further 2.6% for 2014, then we end up with Berlin having reached the 27m passengers mark that is the defined capacity of the new BER airport, while the new airport won't open before 2015.

Of course, defined capacity is only a semi-arbitrary number and, while the level of service may not be quite as good, I imagine squeezeing 28m passengers through BER should not present any major difficulties

The interesting thing is what came out here:
Berlin's Schönefeld airport 'to stay open' - The Local
Namely, the publicly discussed option of keeping Schonefeld for LCCs even when BER is open...

Anyone able to comment as to whether this is a credible option, or just something being discussed as a PR exercise ?

BER not before 2014 !
 

I'm afraid that it is seriously considered to keep the current terminal open for low cost carriers...

This whole story is an an incredible farce to say the least.

BER not before 2014 !
 

Latest is that BER is not to open before 2016... (Anyone with an English link ?)

Now it seem to have been pushed back to 2017
Berlin airport will 'cost ?8 billion and open in 2017' - The Local

Note - not entirely sure if this is an April Fool or not...

What doesn't appear like an April's fool about BER.... However, the Bild newspaper insists in an updated article that this is not an april's fool joke. They claim that only 4% of listed issues have been fixed over a 6 months period. They say sources suggest there are two options: 1) Strip out the entire interior of the airport and re-do it. 2) Demolish the entire thing and start from scratch. Reason for both of the above is that no building plans appear to exist that would help to understand the current built infrastructure. (I know. Continues to sound like a joke. BER-Debakel ist kein April-Scherz: Riesen-Wirbel um BILD-Meldung - Politik Inland - Bild.de)

BER not before 2014 !
 

Now that we are past April 1st do we know if these article were indeed spoofs (I would say so but with BER I guess anything is possible...) ?!

The article that started this last round of comments in the media came from Süddeutsche Zeitung and this article was dated 29 March 2014.

The article says loosely translated from German: "The planned opening of this capital airport in 2016 is in "acute danger".
The only conclusion from this is the most likely no opening of Berlin Brandenburg in 2016, and the next window will then be 2017.


Link to article in German: BER-Flughafen: Selbst 2016 scheint gefährdet - Politik - Süddeutsche.de

Looks like LHR will have a third rwy before BER is up and running.

BER is effectively a second rwy, a new terminal and a new name for SXF, so technically it could be argued that it's "half" open, and always has been.

BER not before 2014 !
 

This is absolutely unbelievable. I still remember touring the place a few days before the expected opening - did not look too bad to the untrained eyes...

Another EUR 1.1bn - and still no opening date
 

Reported on ARD Morgenmagazine this morning costs of BER are expected to increase by a further € 1.1bn, and an SPD politician interviewed said that they should not announce any new opening date until they can be sure it can be met.

The whole thing has become a mess-up of third world proportions and it can only be imagined what damage this one single project is doing the the image of German efficiency and the "Made in Germany" mantra!

I really wonder what is the back story here - sure such projects can go off rails but this is really out of control. I really start to wonder if there is not more that meets the eyes :rolleyes:

The story keeps giving: 3.2 bn extra !

Sounds a bit like the EU.
https://p.gr-assets.com/540x540/fit/...635/690750.jpg

Why have Germans gone all Italian ???

Why then the local government of Brandenburg did so much to destroy all possible alternative airfields in the entire region? 10 years ago Ryanair and other lcc's were eager to settle in Neuhardenberg and/or Eberswalde-Finow, that was just torpedoed. By now these airports could have been striving the same way as Luton or Stansted in the UK are doing, reducing the need to concentrate everything in one place. Delusions of grandeur or alike?

Adolf's airport (Tempelhof) was closed down and has now been lost for all time. It was one of the most beautiful airports on this planet. What's more, it could have been as successful as London City. But unfortunately Berlin's left wing mayor Wowereit decided to shut it down. :ugh: Time to put these left wing scroungers out of their misery. They are the real enemy of prosperity in Europe.

London is a very wealthy city often acting as European HQ for many companies based outside Europe, with huge amounts of business / commerce and generates vast amounts of premium class traffic for people whose time is valued extremely highly.

Berlin is a tourist / Govt city, with lower incomes and tending much more towards economy class tickets.

London City airport survives because of the tidal wave of money sloshing around London. Germany is wealthy but as the mayor said, Berlin is poor.

Not necessarily because THF was losing money, it was a policy decision (airport in the wrong location?), linked to a referendum AFAIK(?). Apparently driven more by ideology than common sense?


And the EU/eurozone isn't?????


Exactly, forty years as a divided city is the reason.

I think it is good to have the Political Capital and Financial Capitals of a country separate.

Racedo, ever heard of the Berlin Wall and East Germany? I believe Fairdealfrank is referring to that rather than Frankfurt being the financial capital of Germany.

Seperate financial and political capitals are found around the world, USA (New York/Washington), Canada (Toronto/Ottowa), Australia (Sydney/ Canberra), China (Shanghai/Peking), India (Bombay/Delhi), Vietnam (Saigon Ho Chi Minh/Hanoi) are some examples.

But it is unusual in Europe, Germany (and Switzerland) are very much exceptions. In Germany, Frankfurt developed as the financial capital, but it could have been Cologne, Dusseldorf, Hamburg or Munich, all bigger cities. When the German Federal Republic was set up in 1949, the the political capital was located at Bonn until reunification, when it was moved to Berlin.

As for hub airports in these countries, they are usually, but not always, situated at the financial capitals. In this respect, Germany is no exception.


That is correct Bengt.

Press reports indicate the airport has a fair chance of being open by 2017...

Correction - press reports now say 2018

man will be living on mars by the time BER opens :ugh:

There is the off chance that once Wowereit (mayor of Berlin, heavily involved in BER board) is gone (11DEC14) a (part-)demolishion of the BER complex will become part of the agenda.

They should have done that in 2012 though.

BER not before 2014 !
 

Ouch so you are impliying that the current buildings have to be reconstructed?

Lattest plans call for an October 2017 opening... This including a fairly substantial rebuild of the current buildings.

BER not before 2014 !
 

Well Mehdorn is out: http://m.thelocal.de/20141215/ber-ch...-tegel-mehdorn

Stats for 2014 are out - TXL + SXF combined saw 28 million passengers over 2014, up from 26.3 million in 2013.
Unfortunately, BER has a design capacity of just 27 million

Aer Lingus have gotten fed up waiting and are moving to TXL in October. This is one of the biggest embarrassments that's come out of Germany.

What's gone wrong with German construction? Their efforts with the Edinburgh Trams weren't so great either :-(

Don't know about the EDI trams, but the BER desaster is not a construction issue per se, key problem is more a case of a political mess, a supervisory board consisting of politicians, and a complete breakdown of communications.

BER not before 2014 !
 

Well I have the strong feeling that there is more than crass incompetence in this story...

It will most likely take a few more years but the story will be worth telling!

I came out of Schonefeld as self-loading freight yesterday. A hell-hole for Pax.

Two years ago, Easyjet passengers including me were herded into a too-small room before leaving for the bus to plane. No loos, inadequate seating, no PA, no information, at least half hour wait.

Yesterday:
Easyjet passengers were herded into a too-small room before leaving for bus to plane. No loos, inadequate seating, no PA, no information, at least half hour wait.

The shadow of the DDR and the Stasi still hangs over Schonefeld. Lots of in-your-face glitter for duty-free, but a **** experience.

Well, the place should have long been shut and in the process of being turned into a government VIP terminal. No surprise that they cannot be bothered to make your experience more pleasant than two years ago. TXL is not much better.

BER not before 2014 !
 

Funilly enough I have been handed over a satisfaction survey at SXF yesterday! Although I understand the constraints around the current facility I have vented some steam...
I have also noticed some extensive "landscaping work" underway... Anyone know what it is ?!