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Fury as new Berlin airport opening delayed
Published: 8 May 12 12:22 CET | Print version
Updated: 8 May 12 17:54 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120508-42411.html
Berlin‘s new international airport will not open as planned on June 3, leaving politicians fuming with anger and embarrassment. The delay was confirmed on Tuesday in an excruciating press conference – and no new date in sight.
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They will now remain open until the - unspecified - day when the new airport is ready.
“It is unclear when the airport will be opened, whether in August or in September. Security comes first,” said Brandenburg’s state Interior Minister Dietmar Woidke on Tuesday.
The announcement left German air traffic control (DFS) scrambling to inform airlines of the change in plans. Ralph Riedle, DFS manager told the Financial Times Deutschland they were only told on Tuesday.
"We have to tell all those airlines world wide who will be affected, that they will have to change their schedules," he said. This will be a huge effort, and was "unusual" he said, because of the short-term information policy of the airport operators.
Airport chief Rainer Schwarz admitted he was "bitterly disappointed" said he was now aiming for an opening "after the summer break", without setting a date.
He was joined at a news conference by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and Brandenburg state premier Matthias Platzeck, who said he could not deny that he was "furious" about the shock announcement.
"This is not a good day for Berlin-Brandenburg airport, the citizens of our states and the many visitors to our region," Wowereit added.
"You can imagine that we did everything possible in the last few months to try to achieve an opening date of June 3."
The massive construction project has been dogged by delays and the original opening scheduled for 2007 has already been pushed back several times.
This time the problems were with the fire escape system, such as warnings and door closure systems, Woidke said.
“For that reason, a safety approval cannot be granted. They are not there yet,” he said.
Insiders at Lufthansa, which has been planning to increase its flights in and out of the German capital through the new airport, said it needed a functioning airport in Berlin.
There was some understanding for the delay at the airline's annual general meeting in Cologne on Tuesday.
"The kind of chaos that was seen at London Heathrow cannot be repeated in Berlin," a high-ranking Lufthansa official said, referring to the 2008 public relations disaster that was the opening of the Heathrow fifth terminal.
The new Berlin airport is set to cost at least €2.5 billion and has required a new stretch of motorway as well as a rail extension and new station. It has been designed to deal with around 27 million passengers a year.
This latest delay is far from the first for the mega project, but must surely be the most embarrassing - the capital is plastered with posters advertising the June opening, which now will not be happening.
DPA/DAPD/AFP/The Local/hc
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
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Your comments about this article:
Open "on time" knowing it's not ready, that things will be a complete disaster, and that (in this case) the safety of users is compromised at a time when employees will be still learning how the place works and where things are. Flights are messed up, passengers probably fail to make connections, and the place is generally a complete fiasco.
Option 2
Open "late" but with a much higher likelihood that things will actually work and safety won't be compromised. Airlines and passengers will have to deal with arriving at TXL, but they'll likely still arrive, more or less on time, and with some expectation that their bags will arrive too. Bosses are embarrassed by the delay in opening.
Between those two, I'd take #2. Every time! Yeah, it's not great, but having seen the disaster at Heathrow, and the complete meltdown at Denver, this is the right decision. A little "egg on the face" is easier to clean up than the lingering memories of trips gone all wrong.
wa
"The kind of chaos that was seen at London Heathrow cannot be repeated in Berlin," a high-ranking Lufthansa official said, referring to the 2008 public relations disaster that was the opening of the Heathrow fifth terminal.
What sanctimonious piffle.