Berlin’s much-delayed new airport slated to open in 2020

BERLIN – Officials say they plan to open Berlin’s new airport, a project notorious for repeated delays, in 2020 — nearly a decade after it was first slated to start operations.

News agency dpa reports that supervisory board chairman Rainer Bretschneider said Friday that managers aim for an October 2020 opening date.

Construction started in 2006, and the airport was originally supposed to open in October 2011. That was put off until June 2012, and then the opening was spectacularly cancelled with four weeks’ notice because of problems with the fire protection system.

The project has blown through a string of further proposed opening dates, leaving the German capital relying on two small and aging Cold War-era airports: Tegel in the former West Berlin and Schoenefeld in what was communist East Germany.