Jaunted

The updated history of BER's delay woes:

October 30, 2011. That was the date Berlin was supposed to debut the state-of-the-art airport. Its full name is Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt (BER). Learning that name is about as far as the public got with it, since a delay pushed everything back until...

June 3, 2012. This was it. June 3rd would be the big debut and the four carriers looking to use BER as a hub—Germanwings, Germania, Air Berlin and Lufthansa—had scheduled their summer around it. It was also the date Berlin's current airport, Tegel (TXL), was supposed to close and shift operations to BER. Then something very un-Germanic occurred: a second massive delay.

August, 2012. This was the month the fire protection problems—the cause of the June delay—were supposed to be resolved and, again, BER cleared to open. At this point, we spoke with Sabine Teller, Senior Manager of Public Relations for Air Berlin, who confirmed that though Air Berlin will fly from Berlin-Tegel (TXL) up to the opening of BER, that date "we don’t know just now.” So is it so surprising another delay followed?

March 17, 2012. This was the date the current delays were supposed to be resolved, giving the new airport a fresh opening date well in advance of prime summer travel. It was far enough away to seem feasible, but it was then widely publicized that even March is too ambitious.

October 27, 2013. According to the Berliner Morgenpost, the construction of BER is now going over budget by a half billion Euros, from 4.277 billion Euros to 4.737 billion Euros. Ouch, not to mention the damage the delays are doing to the business of Air Berlin, who banked on offering more lucrative routes from the new airport.

2014. There's not much more to say. Poor Berlin, as they've been postponing and postponing the fanfare as well as hearty welcomes to the increased flow of travelers expected to arrive with the new routes introduced to Berlin-Brandenburg.

[Photo: Wikimedia]