The new Berlin airport will not open this year either, according to the mayor

Berlin - The new Berlin airport plagued by problems will not open this year either. According to German news websites, Berlin's mayor and chairman of the airport company’s supervisory board Klaus Wowereit announced this. The mammoth multi-billion-euro project, which has been fraught with difficulties since its inception, was supposed to be operational for over two years now; the soonest estimated completion date now appears to be 2015. A specific date, however, remains unclear.
    "It will not be possible to open the airport in 2014," said Wowereit, who stated that more time is needed to complete the extensive construction. "Technical solutions have already been found; now they need to be implemented," he added.
    The modern airport on the southern edge of Berlin was supposed to be operational since autumn 2011. Since then, the opening date has had to be postponed four times due to problems with fire safety regulations and other construction deficiencies. This complicates the plans of airlines, which are forced to continue using the outdated Berlin airports Tegel and Schönefeld, which are supposed to be replaced by the under-construction Willy Brandt airport.
    Costs for its construction have already nearly doubled from the originally planned approximately 2.5 billion euros (almost 69 billion CZK), and each month of delay in completion adds tens of millions of euros. According to press estimates, the total costs to complete the new airport in the capital could reach at least 5.7 billion euros (157 billion CZK). It is expected to become the third largest in Germany after Frankfurt am Main and Munich. Initially, it aims to handle at least 27 million passengers annually, with capacity gradually increasing to 45 million passengers per year.