Airport Berlin International
Berlin
Easy Jet
The City of Berlin, as would be expected from the capital of a major European country like Germany, has a problem with rapidly expanding volumes of air traffic.
The current airport facilities at Tempelhof, Tegel and Schönefeld are inadequate for future projected air traffic to the city. Tegel and Tempelhof cannot be expanded as they are surrounded by urban areas and the only real option for expansion of airport facilities is Schönefeld airport in the southeast of Berlin. Berlin City Council has taken the stance that the completion of massive new airport facilities is a matter of need as well as of prestige.The only option for them is to expand Schoenfeld airport to form the new Berlin Brandenberg International (BBI) Airport, which will be capable of handling all of Berlin's air traffic needs, and to close Tegel and Tempelhof. The plans for BBI were first put forward in 2000 but due to legal and financing problems the airport expansion was delayed. Looking for a hotel in Berlin?
CONSTRUCTION AND COURT CASE
The official construction permit for the airport expansion at Schönefeld was granted in 2003. Since then, the finance has been finalised and detailed planning and preparations have been made for the construction.
The main obstacle to construction starting properly is a court case about the expansion, which was finally heard in the Bundesverwaltungsegericht (German Administrative court) in February 2006 as part of a test case for The Transportation Route Planning Acceleration Act.
After a ten-year administrative court battle, in March 2006 the Bundesverwaltungsegericht in Leipzig gave the go-ahead for the project by ruling in favour of Berlin-Brandenberg against challenges by residents and municipalities near the future airport (there is no appeal against the decision and compensation has been set along with restrictions on night flights).
Construction started in early September 2006 and the airport is scheduled to be completed by late 2011. When the airport opens at the end of 2011/2012 it will have the capacity to handle 22–25 million passengers per year. Depending on the passenger development, the airport can be expanded modularly for up to 40 million passengers. Tempelhof Airport will now be closed in 2007 (a year later than previously agreed) and Tegel Airport in 2011
BERLIN-BRANDENBERG AIRPORT EXPANSION
The Berlin-Schönefeld northern runway will be closed and demolished, the existing southern runway will be lengthened and a completely new runway constructed south of the new BBI Terminal. This will give the airport two parallel runways with a midfield terminal building to save space.
The airport will be equipped with gates, runways and taxiways capable of handling even the largest super jumbos such as the new A380. The airport will also be integrated into a new road and rail infrastructure to allow good communication and short travelling distance to the centre of Berlin and the rest of Germany.
Transport facilities will include a direct motorway connection as well as a high-speed ICE train station directly underneath the terminal. An express train connection will be able to transport passengers into Berlin city centre in under 20 minutes. The city will be only 30 minutes away by car or shuttle bus.
PRIVATISATION OF BERLIN AIRPORT SYSTEM AND FINANCE
Part of the complexity of the project has surrounded the reluctance to privatise Berlin Brandenburg Flughafen, the owner of the Berlin airports. The company was set up as a publicly-owned operation, with the majority of shares going to the government of Brandenburg (37%) and the authority of Berlin (37%); the rest is held by the federal government (26%).
The conclusion to the negotiations came in November 2002 when the investment consortium, Berlin-Brandenburg International Partner (BBIP), led by IVG Holding (Flughafen Wien, Deutsche Bank AG, Caisse des Depots) and Hotchief Airport GmbH, offered to buy 100% of the shares for a consideration of €290m. The BBIP consortium also agreed to provide a total of €650m of capital and to acquire any additional land needed for the airport expansion.
The plans called for €1.7bn to be invested, including technical equipment. 75% of the required services were opened for bids to encourage competition. The federal government agreed to bear the costs for the railway (€496m) and road infrastructure (€76m).
In addition, the plans called for several villages to be displaced. The government agreed to resettle the people of Diepensee (300) and Selchow at a cost of €32.7m and €81.8m, respectively.
The airport concession period, as part of the Build Operate Transfer (BOT) agreement, is 99 years. To prevent any problematic dealings with this airport expansion an independent organisation, Transparency International Deutschland e.V, was appointed to oversee all further business dealings
The BBI
will allow Berlin the distinction of being the European capital with the shortest distance to an international airport.
The BBI will be constructed to serve an initial 20 million passengers by 2011, with the possibility of undertaking additional expansion work to increase that number to 40 million by 2030. The BBI is also planned to have an airport centre, which will contain a range of hotels, retail areas, cafes, bars, restaurants and conference centres.
CONSTRUCTION PREPARATION AND SCHEDULING
The village sites have been occupied by archaeologists contracted to dig for any important findings before the site is lost forever beneath runway construction. A 1.9km seepage basin has been constructed south of the current airport to handle wastewater from the construction site and prevent contamination of the groundwater.
A schedule has now been set for the construction. In the latter half of 2006 the activities will include: set up of the construction site; building of the construction roads; set up of the central concrete mixing plant; set up of the construction site areas; beginning of the relocation of lines; request for tenders for the initial construction work and the building of the runway connections to the northern BBI runway.In 2007 work will include: the start of the rail tunnel and the subterranean railway station; beginning of construction for the utility supply lines and waste disposal; beginning of construction of the southern runway and aprons; demolition of the current northern runway and closure of the gap in the A113 road and the beginning of construction of road connections.Work in 2008 will include the start of the terminal building and operational roads construction. By 2010 the work will be well underway and the anticipated activities will include the start of operations for the fire department, a building for special equipment, winter services, and ground traffic services.
In late 2011 there will be trial operations of the new terminal and master technical system. The airport will then open about a month later, by December 2011.
CONTRACTUAL DIFFICULTIES
In 1999, the German construction company Hochtief won the bid, but it was thrown out due to allegations of industrial espionage and viewing of sealed bids. Hochtief was excluded from bidding a second time by the German courts. Hotchief was then exonerated and no charges were brought and they were subsequently allowed to take part in the process again.
IVG Holding and Hotchief, previously bitter rivals, formed a new consortium and managed to forge a deal to build the new airport.
Thanks to:
http://www.airport-technology.com/projects/berlin/
News and Tips:
|
10.03.1923: Der amerikanische Physiker und Nobelpreisträger von 1980 Val Fitch erblickt das Licht der Welt. |
Letzte Änderung am Sonntag, 1. Februar 2009 um 16:48:31 Uhr.
news by wikipedia
An international airport is an airport typically equipped with customs and immigration facilities to handle international flights to and from other countries. Such airports are usually larger, and often feature longer runways and facilities to accommodate the large aircraft commonly used for international or intercontinental travel. International airports often host domestic flights (flights which take place inside only one country) in addition to international flights. In many smaller countries most airports are international airports, so the concept of an "international airport" has little meaning. In certain countries however, there is a sub-category of limited international airports which handle international flights, but are limited to short-haul destinations (often due to geographical factors) or are mixed civilian/military airports.
Many airports with regularly scheduled international service have the word "International" in their official names, but others, including such major airports as London Heathrow Airport, do not. Conversely, some airports which call themselves international airports, especially in smaller United States cities, in fact have no scheduled international airline passenger service but do have customs and immigration facilities serving charter, cargo and general aviation flights. At many of these airports customs and immigration services are only available with several hours advance notice. One example of such an airport is Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A few, such as Gary/Chicago International Airport in Gary, Indiana, are in fact not international airports at all; they are not designated as airports of entry but aspire to become such in the future and added "international airport" to their names as a marketing tool.
Other airports which previously served international flights now serve primarily domestic flights (international traffic having been redirected to a newer, larger airport in the area), but retain the "international" designation in their name. Examples of these are:Tokyo International Airport (Haneda), in Tokyo, Japan, relieved by Narita International Airport Taipei Songshan Airport in Taipei, Taiwan (which retains its name as "Taipei International Airport" in Chinese), relieved by Taoyuan International Airport. Gimpo International Airport in Seoul, South Korea, relieved by Incheon International Airport Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, relieved by Pudong International Airport. Many international airports also serve as "hubs", or places where non-direct flights may land and passengers switch planes. International airports often have many airlines represented, and many of these are often foreign.
Passengers connecting to domestic flights from an international flight generally must take their checked luggage through customs and re-check their luggage at the domestic airline counter, requiring extra time in the process. In some cases in Europe luggage can be transferred to the final destination even if it is a domestic connection.
In some cases, travelers and the aircraft can clear customs and immigration at the departure airport. As one example of this, are airports in Canada with United States border preclearance facilities. This allows flights from those airports to fly into US airports that do not have customs and immigration facilities. Luggage from such flights can also be transferred to a final destination in the U.S. through the airport of entry.
