The Lufthansa Group has confirmed plans to move to Berlin’s very delayed Brandenburg airport a day after the details were leaked by airline insiders. Billions of Euros over budget and nine years late, Berlin Brandenburg (BER) is finally set to open in the Autumn with all Lufthansa Group airlines operating out of the airport from November 8.
The last Lufthansa flight out of Berlin’s dilapidated Tegel airport will be flight LH1955 from Berlin to Munich on November 7. The following morning at 6:30 am, flight LH173 from Berlin to Frankfurt is scheduled to take off from the German capital’s new airport.
Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines will also start flying out of BER on the same date. Operations will start shifting from Tegel to Brandenburg on October 31, with staffers slowly moving equipment from one airport to the other over the course of a week.
Originally slated to open in 2012, Berlin Brandenburg has been a source of shame and embarrassment for Germany and especially Berliners after the opening date was pushed back year after year.
Construction was hampered when politicians decided to change the airport’s capacity halfway through construction. Then came the realisation that the original designs didn’t include space for Duty Free shops. Extra floors for retail space had to be added.
The number of issues started to mount and the final tally of problems is believed to have exceeded half a million. The overall cost for the project is estimated to now stand at €6 billion – four billion Euros more than the original budget.
Up to 330,000 Lufthansa Group passengers use the overcrowded Berlin Tegel airport every day, meaning that a more efficient airport has been badly needed for some time.
Harry Hohmeister, member of the Lufthansa executive board, however, says moving to Berlin Brandenburg is just the first step. “it is important that the modernization of the airport continues in the future,” he explains.
“BER has to be competitive, both in terms of quality and costs.”
