BER Finally Opens

Well it finally happened.  The new Berlin Brandenburg Airport opened on 31 October 2020.  It was supposed to open back in 2011.  Six later opening dates were also missed.  So much for German engineering.

BER was supposed to be a hub for Airberlin, Germania, Germanwings, Easyjet, and Lufthansa.  Well Airberlin closed in 2017, Germania closed in 2019, and Germanwings closed in April 2020. 

There were two airports in Berlin.  Tegel (TXL) in the north and Schönefeld (SXF) in the south-east part of the city.

BER has three terminals.  Terminal 1 is the brand new terminal.  Terminal 2 was supposed to be for the low cost airlines but it's currently closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Terminal 5 is actually the former Schönefeld Airport which is primarily for Ryanair and some charter flights but it too is currently closed due to decreased demand due to COVID-19.

I remember that the first European protest I saw was about the airport.  The original cost was supposed to be €2,83 billion ($3.47 billion) but in the end it was around €7 billion ($8.59 billion).

Here's a short video I found out on YouTube that gives a bit of the history of Berlin's airports.

©Al Jazeera

Here's a really good 7 minute video that goes in to all of the problems and what all exactly went wrong.

©DW News