Climate activists stage rally as Berlin's 'laughing stock' airport opens after nine-year delay
The Berlin Brandenburg Airport has been plagued by problems, from faulty fire doors to escalators that were too short.
Saturday 31 October 2020 17:55, UK
Climate activists - many dressed as penguins - rallied at the opening of Berlin's new airport today, following nine years of delays and ballooning costs.
The demonstration against aviation expansion began in the street and ended in the lobby, which the protesters blocked the entrance to.
People dressed as penguins were seen hanging from the building and at least one activist was reportedly detained by police.
The timing of the launch could not be worse, with the global aviation industry facing its deepest ever crisis as a result of the pandemic.
Berlin Brandenburg Willy Brandt Airport (BER) is already looking for extra funds to pay its debts, which may prove to be a challenge given that passenger traffic is not expected to return to normal until 2024.
An initial budget of €2.7bn (£2.4bn) more than doubled to €5.9bn (£5.3bn).
Chief executive Engelbert Luetke Daldrup told reporters last month that the delay in opening had made Berlin and Germany "a laughing stock".
"We German engineers were ashamed," he added.
He said there will be "no big party".
The occasion was supposed to be marked by easyJet conducting a parallel landing alongside a Lufthansa plane, but poor visibility meant they landed separately.
An A320neo aircraft by the UK's largest airline took off from Berlin Tegel towards the new airport.
Built on the site of Schoenefeld airport in former East Berlin, the airport was originally intended to be a symbol of a country united after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
BER replaces both Schoenefeld and Tegel, another Cold War-era airport in former West Berlin.
It was named after the former West Germany Chancellor Willy Brandt, who opened relations with the eastern bloc in the early 1970s.
The project's problems began in 2010 when the first opening was delayed because the construction planning company went bankrupt and stricter European safety regulations were introduced.
A fire safety system was found to be defective in 2012, which led to construction being paused.
An inauguration ceremony planned only a few weeks later with Chancellor Angel Merkel was abruptly cancelled.
A whistleblower who had called out corruption on the project was allegedly poisoned in 2016, launching an investigation by prosecutors.
Faulty lighting systems, escalators that were too short, not enough space for lucrative shopping outlets - these were just some of the problems that plagued the project, described as "cursed" by some media outlets.
The city's former mayor Klaus Wowereit was blamed for the budget overruns and later resigned over what he called his "biggest failure" after 13 years in power.
BER has four times more space than the small Tegel airport that will close next week, which suffered complaints of overcrowding, poor services and bad transport connections.
It sits on top of a new railway station that will take passengers to and from Berlin city centre in minutes.
Ironically, the expanded passenger capacity of 55 million may not be needed for the next few years given the drop in air travel.
The airport's centrepiece is the "flying carpet", a 999-square metre red aluminium sculpture by the Californian artist Pae White which dominates the check-in hall.
At the environmental rally, Stay Grounded campaign spokeswoman Lena Tucana said it was a "real scandal" that the airport has opened "despite the climate crisis".
"We will block this madness with civil disobedience," she said.
"Penguins don't fly and are the coolest birds that stay on the ground."