Germany’s Berlin Tegel “Otto Lilienthal” Airport (TXL) Tegal Airport officially closed in November 2020 when operations moved over to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER).
The buildings and grounds of Tegel Airport are being turned into an industrial and research park called the Urban Tech Republic. But last week the former airport grounds played host to a special event on the runway.
As part of the giant picnic event, 1,018 dinner tables were laid out so that, when viewed from the air, they spelled out the words “Berlin loves you” – with a large bonus heart.
Berlin’s mayor said the event was designed to send out the message that the city is open for business, meetings, and events after the pandemic. The Visit Berlin tourism agency said the event was an invitation to the world to visit the city again.
After 9 years of delays and false starts, Germany’s third-largest airport, Berlin Brandenburg “Willy Brandt” Airport (BER) is scheduled to open on October 31, 2020.
We won’t be able to be there for the opening, but we’re looking forward to a visit once this COVID-19 business is resolved.
In the meantime, here’s a recap of our 2014 visit to the airport site, when we joined a bus tour of the unopened airport.
Our report first appeared on USA TODAY.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport is late for an important date
The highlight of my late June visit to the unopened and much-delayed Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport was racing down a runway as a passenger in a tour bus going more than 60 miles per hour.
It was also one of the saddest parts of the tour.
That’s because due to technical glitches, cost overruns, corruption and project mismanagement, tour buses – not airplanes – are likely the only vehicles that will be barreling down the BER runways for quite some time.
Under construction since 2006, Berlin’s much-needed new airport was designed to serve 27 million passengers, with an initial opening target date of November 2011.
That date was pushed back to June 3, 2012, and, despite trial runs during which the airport authority did tests of the baggage carousels, check-in desks, and security checkpoints, and simulated what it termed “all imaginable scenarios,” a problem with the airport’s fire safety and suppression system was discovered.
With just four weeks’ notice, opening day was called off.
Since then multiple target dates for a new opening day – six or seven, it’s hard to keep count – have come and gone. Now all the company managing the project will say is that “an opening date is expected to be announced at the end of the year.”
2016 has been bandied about as the next possible opening date, but additional problems and embarrassing operational revelations keep cropping up.
In May, there was an announcement of a suspected corruption case involving bribes for the awarding of contracts. In early June, there was out-of court settlement between the airport management company and airberlin, the major tenant at Berlin’s outdated Tegel Airport, over claims the airline felt it was due because of delays in the switchover.
And at the end of June, it was revealed that the engineer responsible for designing the new airport’s fire safety system was in fact just a draftsman, not a real engineer, and had been fired.
Besides showing off any progress, one reason the airport authority offers BER tours “is because it’s important that people don’t only read about the airport in the newspaper and see the reports on TV,” said an airport spokesman.
Tour buses stop first at a 105-foot-tall observation tower offering a bird’s eye view of the unopened airport terminal, the unused runways, empty parking lots, and assorted other facilities-in-waiting.
At the bottom of the tower is an airport information center, with a scale model of the airport and a glass cabinet of souvenirs emblazoned with the BER logo.
The staff on duty the day I visited said they don’t sell many of these souvenirs to tourists. And they seemed amused when I asked about purchasing some BER t-shirts, baseball caps, tote bags, inflatable plastic beach balls, and small, plastic lunch boxes.
Our tour bus then drove slowly past the very quiet office, cargo, and airport security facilities and by the railway station, where empty trains run each day to make sure systems remain working.
Photo ops of the front of the main terminal building were only offered from inside the bus, but the terminal’s glass façade offered a glimpse of “The Magic Carpet,” by Pae White. The large, red, work of art, one of several pieces specially-commissioned for the airport, hovers over the check-in lobby.
Out back, the bus pulled up at BER’s one A380-compatible gate, which has a jet bridge draped with Olaf Nicolai’s “Gadget,” a piece of art that looks like a string of giant pop beads and is designed to change colors to match those of the livery of the airplane at the gate.
Tour-goers were allowed off the bus here and invited up a set of not-quite-finished stairs for a look at a gate area where seats were installed, but still wrapped in plastic, and ceiling panels gaped open.
“It’s not unusual for big projects like this to be over budget,” said Johann Bammann, a retired architect whose tour ticket was a gift from a friend. But delays are dragging on too long, he said, “it’s time for the city to have a new front door.”
After a stop near the control tower, the bus made that dash down the runway, stopping to let passengers out to run around and pose for photos.
“It’s just unbelievable. I can’t understand why it’s taking such a long time to open this airport,” said Barbel Liedtke, a former Berlin-based Pan Am Airlines employee taking the tour with a friend. “But I’m sure there are a lot of people to blame.”
There are a lot of reasons to be disappointed about the fact that the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has missed the target opening date by years.
Reason #57: the art.
Although the terminal has some serious infrastructure issues, artwork specially commissioned for the building has been installed.
One of the pieces you can’t see is called “The Magic Carpet,” by Pae White, which hovers over the unused check-in lobby:
Another piece, called “Gadgets,” by Olaf Nicolai, looks likes a giant string of pop beads and is strung over the jet bridge for the only A380-compatible gate.
When the airport does finally open (if it opens… ) passengers will notice that the beads are designed to change color to match the livery of the airplane at the gate.
Confirmation came on Friday, that the opening of the new Berlin-Brandenberg Airport has been put off for again – this time for another seven months. The new target date: October 27, 2013.
According to a statement, the COO of Berlin Airport, Horst Amann, has “pressed the reset button in the area of building services,” assessed the situation and figured out what comes next. “Only such a fresh start can get the airport back on track towards a reliable opening date,” he said.
No one is happy about that. Certainly not Air Berlin, which sent out a message Friday afternoon from CEO Hartmut Mehdorn that said in part:
“We are still looking forward to our new home base at BER … It is regrettable that, following this decision, we will have to spend another summer season at Tegel. We were hoping that we would be spared this, particularly for the sake of our passengers. Tegel is already operating at maximum capacity and can hardly support further growth…”
BER was scheduled to open June 3, 2012, but shortly before the grand opening that date was pushed back due to problems with the fire safety systems. March 17, 2013 was set as the new date, but officials realized that wasn’t going to work either.
(Photo courtesy: Alexander Obst/Marion Schmieding/Berlin Brandenburg Airport)
After announcing that the planned June 3 opening date would be postponed for about three months, yesterday the airport’s supervisory board announced that the opening will now be pushed back until March 17, 2013.
The airport also announced the dismissal of the managing director for operations and construction and termination of the contract with the project management company for the airport.
On May 8, the airport company announced that the planned June 3 opening date for the new airport would be postponed due to a problem with fire safety systems at the airport. They thought they could solve that problem in three months by putting together an interim, partially automated system. But, evidently, that solution won’t work.
The plan now is to complete the fire safety and control system by December 2012 and open the airport once winter – and the potential for more headaches from adverse winter conditions – is over.
According to a statement released today,
“The Supervisory Board …followed the recommendation of the management and decided that all construction work should be completed first before the remaining necessary steps are taken that will allow the airport to commence operations. These steps entail the so-called impact and complex inspection by certified experts, subsequent inspection by the Building Standards Authority, further trial runs, designation of the airport site as a security area, and delivery of goods to storage facilities, shops and restaurants.”
