"Berlin faces long wait for a new airport"

Friday, August 8, 2003

Berlin faces long wait for a new airport
Leon Mangasarian in Berlin reports on development plans that are locked in a
holding pattern. 
Expatica.com


Ever since Germany's 1990 unification, leaders of Berlin have painted
glowing pictures of plans to build a huge airport worthy of the city's
position as capital of the biggest, most economically powerful European
nation. 

A holding company for the grandly named "Berlin-Brandenburg International"
airport was established in 1991. Only in 1996 was it decided to site the new
airport at former East Berlin's Schoenefeld airport rather than greenfield
sites further from the city. 

What's happened since would be a comedy of errors if the airport were not of
such vital importance to Berlin and the economically hard hit surrounding
region. 

In 1999 a consortium led by Hochtief Airport GmbH won the bidding for the
airport, beating rival IVG Holding AG. 

Later that year a court in Brandenburg state ruled the decision was illegal
because of alleged links between Hochtief and officials evaluating bids. In
2000 the airport's holding company - in a desperate move to keep the project
on schedule for its 2007 opening - kicked Hochtief out of the bidding
competition and said it would only negotiate with IVG. 

But later in 2000 state prosecutors closed their investigation against
Hochtief without filing charges. The company then lodged a complaint at
being barred from the new bidding process which was backed by a further
court ruling. 

In November last year the former rivals, Hochtief and IVG, agreed to set up
a joint company to build Berlin's airport. 

The latest sad twists to this saga came in the past week. 

First, a court ruled that major parts of development plans for the airport
were "null and void" because the publicly owned holding company failed to
inform six villages near the site of its decisions. 

Even worse, reports were leaked that Hochtief/IVG were offering a mere DM 50
million to "buy" the airport which is at present jointly owned by the
federal German government (26 per cent), Berlin (37 per cent) and
Brandenburg (37 per cent). 

When they were competing a few years ago Hochtief alone bid DM 650 million
and IVG DM 350 million. 

"IVG and Hochtief set up a consortium together and make us an immoral
offer," complained Michael Cramer, a transport expert for the Berlin Greens
Party. 

There is scant chance Berlin can pay more. The city is, in effect, bankrupt
amid a scandal involving dubious loans by the publicly held Bank
Gesellschaft Berlin. 

The planning chaos surrounding Berlin-Brandenburg International has led
Cramer to conclude the new airport will not open until 2010. 

Berlin's Mayor Klaus Wowereit, who is seeking reelection in October, vows he
will do everything possible to meet the 2007 target. 

But the Berliner Zeitung newspaper said there were growing doubts the new
airport would ever be built at Schoenefeld. 

And Brandenburg's Maerkische Allgemeine paper warned the low bid meant the
whole privatisation plan for the airport could collapse. 

Even if it is built there are growing doubts that a Berlin airport will ever
play the much hoped for role in inter-continental travel. "It's going to be
a regional airport -- not a major hub," said Jens-Uwe Schade, a spokesman
for Brandenburg's environment ministry which is responsible for zoning. 

Berlin already has three, small regional airports. Tegel, the former West
Berlin airport and the tiny Tempelhof also in former West Berlin, as well as
Schoenefeld. 

Tegel, the biggest of the three, is ranked an embarrassing 35th place in a
listing of the top 50 European Union airports, based on passenger numbers,
issued by Eurostat earlier this month. 

Frankfurt is number three in the EU, Munich ranked 11th and Duesseldorf
12th. Even puny Hanover, at 33rd place, beats Berlin-Tegel. 

It's hard to fly anywhere outside of Europe from Berlin and sometimes even
flights within Europe first mean a feeder flight to a bigger German airport
or else London, Paris or Amsterdam. 
 
For years Berlin did not have a single flight to North America. After much
hand-wringing, local hotels last year raised a million marks to subsidise a
Lufthansa route to Washington. 

But travel agents say the Berlin-Washington route is failing to attract
enough business class and first class passengers and that it may be
suspended. 

Meanwhile, expansion of the airport at Leipzig, which is just 150km south of
Berlin, has swiftly been completed. Analysts say Berlin's delays will fuel
traffic at pro-business Leipzig which has proven nimble at defeating Berlin
to win prestige projects as the new Porsche and BMW auto plants. 

More political turbulence may be on the way for Berlin's airport after the
autumn city elections. 

Mayor Wowereit, a member of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democrats
(SPD), has said he is willing to form a coalition with the post-East German
communists - the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). 

But the PDS opposes expansion of Schoenefeld and instead wants a smaller,
new airport to be built at a former military base in Sperenberg, far south
of Berlin in the Brandenburg countryside. 

Thus, a left-left SPD-PDS coalition could prove the final straw for Berlin's
dreams of a Schoenefeld central European hub.


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