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 ?!