Berlin’s long-delayed flagship airport is unlikely to open before 2017, indicates Christian Gorke, finance ministry of the regional government of Brandenburg.
Gorke has told Der Tagesspiegel newspaper that an opening of the troubled gateway in 2017 was “not unrealistic from today’s point of view”. The state of Brandenburg is a shareholder of the airport in addition to the city of Berlin and Germany’s federal government.
Airport operator Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg had planned to set a reliable opening date by the end of this year. Meantime, however, the management has said that it will only be able to set a time window for the opening.
This is to be revealed after a supervisory board meeting on 12 December.
Earlier this year, the airport called for additional capital as the current €4.3 billion ($5.4 billion) budget does not cover any expansion of the greenfield terminal, which is expected to open at its capacity limit.
The existing budget includes a €1.2 billion extension granted in 2012 – when the airport’s opening was called off just weeks before the target date in June of that year – for a planned opening in October 2013.
Gorke says that half of that capital injection have thus far been used up. Any additional funds the airport will have to find from private investors, he says.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
