It remains empty of passengers but the still incomplete Berlin Brandenburg airport is doubling as a busy visitor attraction.
Some 37,000 people booked and paid for tours around the unopened airport grounds and its terminal last year, according to airliners.de.
Visitors can view the airport grounds by bus and there are walking tours within the unfinished terminal where the empty check-in counters present a sad sight.
But few participants are traditional tourists, with most reportedly being curious local residents, corporate clients, engineers or students.
The ill-fated airport is not scheduled to open until 2017, many years later than originally intended, at the earliest (see news, January 2013). When it does open it will become Berlin's sole airport as the now desperately overcrowded Tegel will close.
Berlin Brandenburg recently appointed a new chief, Karsten Muhlenfeld, to replace predecessor Helmut Mehdorn, who resigned.
Subscribers can read about the progress of the long-overdue airport in this month's issue here.
Alex McWhirter
