Fasten your seatbelts

Berlin's new international airport received its control tower on Tuesday, November 3.

"The tower is 72 meters tall and will be able to accommodate up to eleven air traffic controllers," said a spokesperson from the German authority for air traffic safety (DFS).

Building began on what is now the second highest control tower in the country in February this year. It cost some 35 million euros - a mere sliver of the project's total budget of 2,5 billion euros.

Its completion marks the latest milestone in the ongoing saga of the capital's new airport, Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI).

Set to open in two years time, BBI is to be Germany's third largest airport after Frankfurt and Munich: Developers say it will become a major European hub capable of processing some 25 million passengers a year - or more.

Ambitious plans

The project is hailed by Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit as a welcome trigger for regional regeneration.

"The new airport will be a fitting calling card for the German capital," he said when construction began in 2006.

Once the main airport of communist East Germany, the Schoenefeld grounds - some 16 kilometers southwest of the city center in the state of Brandenburg - have been undergoing a major revamp and extension for the past three years. For the time being it's still a drab and modestly-sized place, popular mainly with low-budget travelers who neither expect nor get much luxury. Bbut when it's ready, the new and improved BBI will cover 1470 hectares - roughly the same area as 2000 football pitches.

All air traffic for the Berlin-Brandenburg region will be concentrated here by 2011 --and so far, this deadline looks as though it will be met.

"Everything is going according to plan," said airport spokesman Ralf Kunkel.

By then, the city's two other airports will have both long ceased operations. The centrally-located Tegel airport is scheduled to shut in 2011, while the historic Tempelhof airport was controversially closed in October 2008 after fierce public debate.

Resident complaints

It wasn't the only fuss surrounding the BBI enterprise.

Although supporters of the new airport predict that job creation and medium-sized businesses in Berlin and Brandenburg will benefit from BBI - most of the contracts for construction work have indeed gone to regional companies - many residents have been up in arms about the project from the outset, fearing that the new airport will result in intolerable noise levels.

In late October, Reinhold Dellmann, then Minister for Infrastructure, fuelled their anxieties when he unveiled plans to bar flights between midnight and 5am but to increase air traffic immediately before and after these times. According to the new stipulations, up to 100 starts and landings will be allowed per night - over twice the current number.

The decision "clearly reflects the airlines' economic interests," railed Anita Tack, traffic spokeswoman for the Left Party last week.

Local airport opponents from the citizens' association of Brandenburg Berlin (BVBB) are now weighing up their options.

"The BVBB is investigating whether it can appeal to the Federal Administrative Court" it said in a press release.

The group is unlikely to take comfort from the fact that Dellmann also announced that the noise protection zone surrounding the airport is to be extended from 27 square kilometers to 50, allowing up to 16,500 local residents to claim subsidies to install soundproof windows.

Lufthansa keeps its feet on the ground

Moreover, airport spokesman Kunkel says that demand for night flights will inevitably increase.

The BBI concept foresees a 'new generation' airport that operates domestic, European and even intercontinental flights under one roof.

And if it's to be as successful as local government hopes, the airport will also need to be able to grow.

Management says BBI can be expanded to accommodate up to 40 million passengers each year. Pointing to the fact that Berlin airports' traditional focus towards eastern Europe is now an even greater advantage given the EU's enlargement in recent years, BBI managers have been quick to stress that flight times to Eastern Europe and Asia are one hour less than those of the established hubs further west.

But German carrier Lufthansa clipped BBI's wings last week when it announced at the ITB Asia tourism trade fair in Singapore that it would not be offering direct flights from Berlin to Asia.

Ralf Kunkel shrugs off the suggestion that this limits BBI's prospects.

"Fortunately we're in a position of not having all our eggs in one basket," he told Deutsche Welle. "We work with a very wide spectrum of airlines, so this announcement by Lufthansa hasn't worried us unduly."

"Schoenefeld has been able to boost its range of long-haul flights steadily in the past and we're confident we can continue to raise our international profile," he insisted.

Reporter: Jane Paulick
Editor: Sam Edmonds