To complete the new Berlin airport, €1.1 billion is needed

Berlin - The new Berlin airport, Willy Brandt, needs to secure an additional 1.1 billion euros (30.2 billion crowns) by the end of the year; otherwise, its construction will stop. This was stated today by ARD television, citing sources from the supervisory board of the company building the airport. The opening date of the modern airport, which according to the original plans should have been in operation for two and a half years already, remains unknown.
    The construction of the airport is financed by the German state and the federal states of Brandenburg and Berlin, which have so far provided 4.6 billion euros (126 billion crowns) for the project. However, these funds will be exhausted by the builders by the end of the year. Moreover, the construction will not be completed this year; in addition to the preparations for the airport itself, the construction of the underground station, which would connect the air hub with the German capital and connect it to major rail lines, is not yet finished.
    The modern airport on the southern edge of Berlin was supposed to be in operation since the autumn of 2011. Since then, the opening date has already been postponed four times due to problems with fire safety and other construction deficiencies, and currently, there is no fixed date set for the airport's opening. This complicates the plans of airlines that are forced to continue using the capacitively inadequate old Berlin airports Tegel and Schönefeld, which are meant to be replaced by the under-construction Willy Brandt airport.
    The costs of its construction have nearly doubled from the originally planned approximately 2.5 billion euros (68.6 billion crowns), and with each month that the completion of the construction is delayed, costs increase by tens of millions of euros.
    Willy Brandt Airport is expected to become the third largest in Germany after Frankfurt and Munich. Initially, it aims to handle at least 27 million passengers annually, but its capacity is to gradually increase to 45 million passengers per year.