Berlin’s new Willy Brandt Brandenburg International Airport is now officially scheduled for passenger service on October 31, 2020, officials have announced. Skeptics will be given permission to giggle a bit, since this is the umpteenth time a date has been announced after missing the original date of October 2011.
The airport has been delayed repeatedly by a series of catastrophes including corruption scandals, fires, bad design, faulty construction, weak concrete and just plain mismanagement. So much so that it’s become a German bad joke that some officials began to say might never open; until this week no one has been willing to commit to a date for about two years.
The original plan was for the new airport, designated BER, to replace Schönefeld, the East German airport that sits opposite the new terminals, Tegel to the north of Berlin while BER is to the south, and downtown Tempelhof. Tempelhof closed, but the delays have caused Tegel to continue expanding, and in a 2017 vote, citizens voted to keep it open. The new airport, when opened, will not be large enough to handle all of Berlin’s air traffic. Both Tegel and Schönefeld will be needed for a while yet
The Telegraph (UK) recently published an excellent review of the long history.
