Berlin Brandenburg: Project runway

Alex McWhirter reports on the progress of Berlin’s long-overdue Brandenburg airport More than four years ago, Berlin should have had a brilliant new airport… but it never happened. The delayed opening of the capital’s Brandenburg airport has become an embarrassment both for Berliners and Germany as a whole. Although nothing is set in stone, the earliest the new airport could open is sometime in 2017. The project has been postponed several times during the past few years because of a host of safety and construction issues. Brandenburg airport chief executive Hartmut Mehdorn, who has been overseeing the troubled project for the past couple of years, is to stand down in June, to be replaced by former Rolls-Royce executive Karsten Muhlenfeld. In the meantime, Berlin’s existing airports at Tegel (the main international facility) and Schonefeld (primarily used by low-cost carriers) have had to make do as best they can. Both were set to close at the same time that Brandenburg opened, so they have outdated facilities requiring many improvements. With the growth of international travellers, they have also become overcrowded and, in the case of Tegel, badly in need of refurbishment. To this end, €20 million will now be spent on renovations at Tegel airport to keep it operating for another few years – which is welcome news for frequent business travellers. Berlin is not only short of airport capacity – it is also short on long-haul services. Almost all long-haul carriers shun the city. It is not considered a place to earn serious money – a result of the capital’s troubled past, during which Germany’s industrial and business bases located to other cities. Flag carrier Lufthansa does not fly long-haul from Berlin, instead restricting its “core brand” to its Frankfurt and Munich hubs, where passengers must change for destinations further afield (see “Bigger is better”, our report on Frankfurt airport). The main scheduled long-haul carriers serving the city are Air Berlin (which is 30 per cent owned by Etihad), Qatar Airways and United. Aeropolitical issues restrict Emirates from flying there. Tegel is the airport most likely to be used by business people. Located in the former Western zone, it is a short taxi ride – about 10km – from the city centre. While there is no rail station, buses run to both the west and east of the city. Tegel is constructed in a hexagonal shape. The advantage is that if you arrive by car, you are virtually at your departure gate, so walking distances are very short. The drawback is that Tegel was built for the Cold War era, when the city’s air transport was controlled by the Soviets and was a fraction of what it is today. As a consequence, gate space is limited, which results in overcrowding. Schonefeld was located in former East Germany and Brandenburg airport will occupy its airfield. It will have a new terminal, a hotel (built and ready for business when the airport opens), a train station that will be linked to the existing mainline, and a new runway. There is already a rail station at Schonefeld, which is a five-minute covered walk from the terminal. Regular Airport Express trains reach Alexanderplatz in 30 minutes and Zoologischer Garten in 45 minutes. There is also a frequent but slower S-Bahn service. Schonefeld is roughly 18km from downtown, depending on which part of the city you need to access, so taxi fares can be on the pricey side. When Brandenburg opens it will be Germany’s third-biggest airport, although its annual capacity of 27 million passengers means it will be almost full from day one, so additional space will be required in the not-too-distant future. Passengers will find that using Brandenburg will offer a brighter, more welcoming experience than at present. Although it will take longer to reach the centre compared with Tegel, the train journey will be easier than when using Schonefeld, and the first-class hotel will provide a much-needed facility (neither airport currently has an on-site hotel). Aviation is a fast-changing business, so one cannot make predictions so far ahead with any certainty. Nevertheless, one would hope that in a few years’ time Brandenburg would be able to attract some new airlines to reflect its status as the main airport serving the capital of Germany.