New Berlin Airport Becomes a Local Joke With Its Opening Postponed Once Again

The opening of the new "Berlin-Brandenburg" airport has been postponed again for at least one year. The reason is as unusual as it sounds: the airport won't open because of the failure of its automatic doors in the main terminal.

To clear up this absurd and, to some extent, humorous situation, Sputnik Germany asked German stand-up comedian Khalid Bounouar his opinion.

According to Bounouar, the whole construction process has been a mysterious phenomenon for years.

The "Berlin-Brandenburg" or BER airport beats all records not only in terms of the size of expenditures, but also in terms of the length of its construction and constant delays of its planned use, well, probably with the exception of the Cologne Cathedral, the construction of which started in 1248 and was finished in 1880.

"It will definitely be in the "Guinness Book of Records" as the greatest airport never built. Or, as the airport, which was built for the longest time ever. Or, as an airport, which in its first five years suffered the greatest financial losses, because it did not have any revenue. There are many records that it could beat," Bounouar told Sputnik.

Construction started in September 2006 with the grand opening of the BER airport originally scheduled for November 2011. However, the official opening has been repeatedly postponed and will probably take place only in 2018.

"The doors do not open! Well, I know a lot of guys who know how to open the doors with the help of credit cards or pins. So if the builders can't cope with the door opening issue, then I really have nothing to say," Bounouar joked.

As a matter of fact, Germany indeed seems to have serious problems with the construction of large buildings. For instance, the Elbe Philharmonic Hall, a long awaited concert hall in Hamburg, has been under constrtuction since 2007 and was originally slated to open in 2010.

During this period, construction costs increased from 241 to 789 million euros. Well, at least, it was finally officially opened a few weeks ago, on January 12, 2017.