New Berlin airport will likely not have enough capacity

Berlin - The capacity of the under-construction Berlin Airport Willy Brandt will likely not meet the transportation demands of the German capital once completed. At today's supervisory board meeting of the airport, Hartmut Mehdorn, the head of the air harbor, stated this according to ARD television. For Willy Brandt Airport, this means another problem in a series – the airport was supposed to be operational for two and a half years already, and the costs of its construction have significantly exceeded the planned budget.
The new airport on the southern edge of the German capital is expected to handle 27 million passengers annually and is meant to replace the existing Berlin airports Tegel and Schönefeld, which are no longer technically sufficient. However, Mehdorn stated today that last year, 26 million passengers passed through both currently operating Berlin airports, and this number is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.
Experts are convinced that it will not be possible to open Willy Brandt Airport any earlier than 2017. This would mean that from the moment operations begin, the new airport will not be capacity-compliant with the needs of Berlin.
Therefore, Mehdorn today requested the supervisory board of the new airport to release an additional 779 million euros (21.4 billion crowns) for the reconstruction of the Schönefeld airport terminal. This terminal is to become part of the Willy Brandt Airport complex and serve the needs of low-cost airlines. The capacity of the new airport would thus increase by five to ten million passengers annually.
Mehdorn is also asking the airport's supervisory board for an additional 1.1 billion euros beyond the currently approved budget of 4.6 billion euros (126.3 billion crowns). According to him, the airport management must secure the funds by the end of the year; otherwise, construction work will stop.
The supervisory board, which consists of representatives from Brandenburg, Berlin, and the federal government, has not yet responded to Mehdorn's requests. However, Brandenburg representatives have already warned, according to the Potsdamer Neue Nachrichten, that they are unwilling to invest more money into the airport construction unless a firm opening date is set and guarantees are provided that this date will be met.
Willy Brandt Airport, which is expected to be the third largest German air harbor after Frankfurt and Munich, was supposed to be operational since the fall of 2011. Due to issues with fire safety and other construction deficiencies, the opening date has been postponed four times already. Currently, there is no fixed date for commissioning established.
As the start of operations continues to be delayed, the costs of building the airport are also rising. The original budget was approximately 2.5 billion euros (68.6 billion crowns), and taking into account Mehdorn's current demands, the total amount could ultimately rise to 6.5 billion euros (178.4 billion crowns).