The supervisory board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg, the management company in charge of Berlin’s much-delayed Brandenburg Airport (IATA: BER) has announced that flight operations will begin on October 31. The supervisory board approved this proposal, made by the management board, at a meeting on November 29. Scheduled flights will end in Tegel one week later, on November 8, 2020. In that time, there will be three major relocation steps in which all flight operations will move from Tegel Airport to BER.
The supervisory board said the approval was preceded by an “intense discussion” regarding the status of building work at Terminal 1. The construction team spoke of its progress in correcting the remaining faults in the cabling and airport partner TÜV Rheinland also presented the progress of its inspection programme. It concluded that the inspections should be completed in the spring of 2020.
With regard to Terminal T2, the management board told the supervisory board that its construction progress had developed in line with previously agreed plans and the baggage handling system and other technical equipment is now being installed.
Structural work on the federal police building directly adjacent to Terminal 2 is at an advanced stage and should be completed by the end of this year.
The supervisory board also passed the 2020 budget, which forsees an operating budget of around €86 million due to the one-off charge for the cost of BER’s operational readiness and transfer (ORAT) programme).
Rainer Bretschneider, chairman of the supervisory board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg, commented: “Today’s opening date announcement marks the beginning of a new stage on the way to launching BER. The date also shows that the airport company is on the right track. With this in mind, the supervisory board welcomed the announcement of the specific relocation dates as a success for the airport company’s entire workforce.”
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg, added: “The date is set: BER will open on 31 October 2020. All the work that still needs doing at BER is being done intensively. There is still much to be done in the next eleven months. The finished building must become a functioning airport.”
