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Berlin airport ‘bankrupt by October’ without €300 million injection

Berlin’s long-delayed BER airport is set to go bankrupt by the end of October 2020 unless it receives a cash injection of €300 million, according to a report.

Published: 7 September 2020 16:43 CEST
Berlin airport ‘bankrupt by October’ without €300 million injection
Berlin's BER airport. Photo: DPA

It is the latest setback for the airport, which is still yet to open its doors despite an original opening date of October 2011. 

Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper reports that the airport will be bankrupt by October 31st, 2020 unless it receives a new cash injection of €300 million.

READ: Inside Berlin's long-delayed BER airport

October 31st, 2020, remains the airport's projected opening date. 

Federal Finance State Secretary Bettina Hagedorn, of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), wrote to the budget committee of the Bundestag to ask for the funding. 

'No risks' ahead of Berlin Brandenburg (BER) airport opening in October 2020 

The €300 million is made up of €99 million to be transferred immediately, along with €201 million to be paid as a loan. 

The debacle does not end there, however.

The Tagesspiegel reports that internal documents reveal the airport will need up to €700 million, in a ‘worst case scenario’, i.e. where traveller numbers stay low due to the continuation of the pandemic.

The airport’s woes have been compounded by the pandemic.

READ ALSO: The never-ending story: How BER airport became the laughing stock of Berlin

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TRAVEL NEWS

Copenhagen Airport delays: Air traffic controllers borrowed to ease shortage

Air traffic control company Naviair will loan air traffic control staff from the smaller Roskilde Airport to solve persistent flight delays out of Copenhagen.

Published: 16 May 2023 17:22 CEST
Copenhagen Airport delays: Air traffic controllers borrowed to ease shortage

The loan of staff from Roskilde Airport will be in place throughout the peak summer season, Naviair said in a statement.

The decision has been made to prevent major flight delays affecting passengers at Copenhagen Airport.

Naviair said that the solution will give it enough cover for most of the summer flight traffic without lengthy delays or asking air traffic controllers to work overtime.

Capacity at Roskilde Airport will be reduced during the period.

“The plan is going to have some consequences. The reallocation of air traffic controllers means reduced capacity at Roskilde Airport, whose users we naturally apologise to,” Naviair director of traffic Thorsten Elkjær said in the press statement.

READ ALSO: Airline Norwegian threatens to ‘find alternative’ to Copenhagen Airport over delays

The shortage of air traffic controllers and related dispute between their trade union and Naviair, their employer, has resulted in delays for hundreds of thousands of passengers at Copenhagen Airport in recent weeks.

Naviair has asked its staff to take on extra shifts due to the shortage but has also said it has increased intake on training programmes to eventually increase the number of staff available. 

The air traffic controllers have said that the overtime is not at a manageable level, and that they have taken 1,500 additional shifts so far this year.

Figures from April show that some 45 percent of flights from Copenhagen Airport were delayed last month and the issue has continued into May.

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