After years and years of delays, disaster and disruptions, Berlin’s new airport appears to finally be ready to meet its commitment to open at the end of next month. Even skeptics (TravelGumbo included) who have followed the story of the airport that should have opened in 2011 now believe it will open at last.
While last-minute work continues on the new terminal (if it can be called ‘new’ after all this time) continues with final fittings and testing of furniture and signage, across the runways, another important step has been completed: the transformation of the former Schoenefeld Airport, originally built by East Germany, into Terminal 5 of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
Over the past three years, over €41 million has been spent to upgrade passenger facilities, create new modern security queues and to bring the older terminal into a common color scheme with the new. Among the last steps, even the roof signs visible to pilots have been repainted to reflect the new BER airport code, replacing SXF. Internally, gate areas have been changed to K, L, and M to continue the letters in the new terminal.
