[murphaph]

Hi all,
I searched but didn't see any thread on the announcement yesterday that BER will not open on June 3rd as planned and that the irport authorities are not even in a position to give a definite opening date.

Being a resident of Berlin, I have multiple flights booked that are supposed to depart from BER.

The airlines aren't giving any concrete information out as I presume this came as a big shock to them so fair enough there. I wonder though, does anyone feel able to comment on the likely knock-on effects of such a delay?

Do the existing airports TXL & SXF have enough capacity, given that Lufthansa and Air Berlin have a much expanded set of routes planned for BER and presumably have sold tickets for these routes already?

Appreciate any thoughts.

[pclive]

According to their website Lufthansa plan to go ahead with their increase in flight ops. They are in talks with Tegel to secure the additional slots.

[Stimpyone]

Awh man.... I'll be flying through Berlin a lot this summer and I was hoping BER would be open on time.

The thoughts of flying through Schoenfeld fills me with dread. Especially during the summer.

Junkers lounge for me...

[podgemonster]

I have a Ryanair flight booked in June after the euros. So I rang Ryanair today and asked them what as the plan. They proceed to tell me that the flight was still active and that it will go out and there is nothing to worry about.
W.T.F!!

I argued that it will be difficult as the airport has yet to be built but according to their computers the flight is still going ahead.

Anyone know what the procedure will be once Ryanair cop on to whats happening, will my flight be cancelled? will it be simple moved to the other two airports or will i have to rebook?

[Cookiemunster]

Originally Posted by podgemonster

I have a Ryanair flight booked in June after the euros. So I rang Ryanair today and asked them what as the plan. They proceed to tell me that the flight was still active and that it will go out and there is nothing to worry about.
W.T.F!!

I argued that it will be difficult as the airport has yet to be built but according to their computers the flight is still going ahead.

Anyone know what the procedure will be once Ryanair cop on to whats happening, will my flight be cancelled? will it be simple moved to the other two airports or will i have to rebook?

Ryanair currently fly into Schoenfeld, which is basically the old soon to be decommisioned terminal on other side of the runway to the new airport. I reckon they'll just continue using Schoenfeld until Brandenburg opens.

[MYOB]

Ryanair should definitely be fine for the reasons stated above. Its flights on airlines that currently use Tegel or airlines/routes that don't fly to either of them that might have some issues.

[murphaph]

I don't think it's so simple.

Berliner Flughäfen (Berlin Airports Authority) have signed contracts with the various airlines to provide slots at BER and consequently the likes of Lufthansa have decided to massively expand their offering out of Berlin.

Lufthansa are adding a whopping 53% more capacity into Berlin and will already have sold tickets for these flights.

Lufthansa will be Berliner Flughäfen's biggest customer after the summer by far and will presumably be able to exert considerable influence on Berliner Flughäfen. They will push for more slots in Tegel and possibly Schönefeld to avoid disappointing their customers.

Air Berlin will be up to the same thing I should imagine.

An airline like Aer Lingus that has one route into Berlin will likely not have the bargaining position of Lufthansa, Air Berlin or EasyJet (who all base aircraft in Berlin and are much bigger customers). I could easily see Berliner Flughäfen stiffing the likes of Aer Lingus for one of their bigger customers' sakes.

Air Berlin is already stating that unless the night flight ban is lifted at Tegel that they won't be able to operate all scheduled flights, so it's clear that flight times at least will be affected as BER also has a night time flight ban. There clearly isn't the capacity between SXF and TXL to handle all planned BER flights and it won't be as simple as saying "that's a new route (eg to Windhoek), so we'll cancel that flight and let the old route (eg to Dublin) go".

[Plowman]

Originally Posted by Stimpyone

The thoughts of flying through Schoenfeld fills me with dread. Especially during the summer.

There's a lovely buffet restaurant on the top floor landside, iirc. You can eat your feelings there!

[Stimpyone]

Originally Posted by Plowman

There's a lovely buffet restaurant on the top floor landside, iirc. You can eat your feelings there!

you sir are a liar

[murphaph]

Went to the open day today. It's still a total building site. There's a lot more to do than the politicians and senior heads in the airport authority have been letting on. At least one guy was doing his job right....the fire chief who refused permission to open on June 3rd!

News is now starting to slowly leak out that some independent assessors who looked at progress in early April said it could not possibly open by the due date, but they pushed on regardless. I'd say the airlines and other assorted businesses will now sue our already indebted city into oblivion. Shambles really.

[MYOB]

I would imagine that if the airport authority attempted what you're suggesting murpaph, that there'd be some serious court cases and compensation being sought.

[murphaph]

Announced today: BER will open on the 17th of March next year. (time will tell). There's no way it's just the fire safety systems that aren't ready. I went to the open day at the weekend-it's still a building site in many spots.

[lord lucan]

Won't be opening this year either. The revised opening date of October this year won't be met either,looks like 2014 at the earliest.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...fa6748f9c9.561