Berlin's airport operator FBB has expressed confidence that the long-delayed Brandenburg hub will open in October 2020 as planned.
FBB says in its newly published annual report for 2018 that it "is due to complete all construction work" at the airport in 2019, and that the "still ongoing remedy of defects is developing positively".
Chief executive Engelbert Lutke Daldrup states: "BER [Brandenburg airport] will go into operation in October 2020."
He adds: "At the moment, we are not aware of any circumstances that call this date into question."
Construction work is concentrated on modifications to the airport's central Terminal 1 and an additional, newly built terminal for budget airlines, which connects to the main facility's northern pier.
All other ancillary buildings and infrastructure at the Brandenburg site were approved in 2017 and have since been operational, FBB says.
Terminal 1's southern pier was completed and declared operational in 2018, the operator notes.
Brandenburg's planned opening in 2012 was abandoned just weeks before the launch date amid concern over the terminal's smoke extraction and other safety systems.
Modification efforts revealed a range building defects, and multiple target dates for opening were subsequently missed.
The terminal's smoke-extraction "control" system was tested in April by safety and quality certification specialist TUV Rheinland and "released without defects", FBB says.
In July, the operator disclosed that tests of Terminal 1's emergency systems had progressed sufficiently that the facility was ready for broad operating principle tests.
But FBB noted that modifications of the terminal's emergency power and safety lighting had not yet been completed.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
