German court authorities have approved the development of the proposed new Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI) airport, finally clearing the way for the much-delayed project.
Berlin Brandenburg International will be built on the site of the present Berlin Schönefeld airport on the southeastern border of the city and will become the new airport for the German capital city region. The inner city airports Tegel and Tempelhof will be closed as a result. BBI plans to have the capacity to handle 22 million passengers per year.
The go-ahead for the new capital airport, which will replace the city’s three-airport system, had depended on the decision of a court in Leipzig.
Court officials have spent the last few weeks conducting an in-depth assessment of objections to the proposed airport. But today the court has ruled that the development can proceed – albeit with a curfew on night-flights.
In its ruling the court says that the selection of Schönefeld as the site, with its good transport connections to Berlin's central business district, followed appropriate consideration of alternatives.
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But it adds that the noise-protection measures presented contain “deficits” and the court has ruled that, because Schönefeld is surrounded by residential areas, the new airport should have a 5h curfew on night flights between midnight and 05:00.
The court also says that the airport should only permit essential traffic movements between 22:00 and midnight, and 05:00-06:00.
Opening of the new €2 billion ($2.4 billion) airport, originally scheduled for next year, has been pushed back to November 2011. The programme has suffered several setbacks during its conception but the project management team will at last be able to begin construction.
Source: Flight International