The last minute delay to Berlin’s new airport is a PR disaster for all of Germany – By Michael Winckler

Germany is one of the world’s leading industrialized nations. Its engineering is legendary. And German efficiency and punctuality can usually be counted on as well. But now the country’s reputation has suffered a blow. The opening of Berlin’s new airport has had to be postponed – for a second time. The first flights were scheduled to leave Willy Brandt Flughafen southeast of the capital on June 3. Now, there will be no takeoffs before March 17, 2013 – more than nine months later.

Airport operators cite problems with the fire safety systems as the main reason for the delay. But in fact, by June 3, only about half of all the technical processes needed to run the airport were operating safely and securely – as a report by ORAT Consulting, one of the companies assessing the new airport’s readiness, attests.

Clearly not everything in a huge infrastructure project can turn out perfectly on the first go, even in a high-tech place like Germany. And a delay – as long as it is announced in good time – can be forgiven on a project the size of an airport. But now Berlin is a laughing-stock. For the admission that the airport would not be ready by the scheduled date came a mere three and a half weeks before “Europe’s most modern airport” – as the operators like to refer to it – was due to go into service. 

The flight schedules of both national and international airlines had already been published. The move out of the two old airports, Berlin-Tegel and Schönefeld, had been planned in minute detail. Chancellor Angela Merkel was to officially open the complex a week before the first flight. Forty thousand visitors were expected. The new international airport was to be presented to the world in a national event.

It has turned out to be a national disaster. And already there is talk of construction costs doubling to €5 billion.

Those responsible for the project say they were not aware of the problems. Just three days before the announcement of the delay, airport boss Rainer Schwarz said it would open on time. Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit, who as chairman of the operator’s supervisory board is ultimately responsible for the “biggest infrastructure project in eastern Germany,” responded grumpily to journalists’ enquiries as to whether the airport would open as planned.

Such questions did not come out of the blue. The past two years have seen enormous problems with the installation of technical equipment in key areas, as supervisory board minutes have now confirmed. It seems the airport heads have failed utterly on the project coordination front. Technical manager Manfred Körtgen has already been given the boot. And the supervisory board, full of politicians from the state governments of Brandenburg and Berlin as well as the federal government – Brandenburg’s premier, Matthias Platzeck, is deputy chairman – has obviously exercised its supervisory function inadequately.

Such mismanagement may be expected of a banana republic – but Germany?