After 13 long years, the end seems to be in sight. The Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which was supposed to open in 2011, has topped out a second terminal. BER is meant to open next year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Stache
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The Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) celebrated the topping out of Terminal 2, inching the long-unfinished airport closer to completion.
Construction workers raised a wreath to mark the topping out, which comes 10 months after the start of construction on the building. Airport CEO Engelbert Lütke Daldrup hailed the achievement as a "first important milestone" for the terminal.
The terminal, called T2, is expected to serve 6 million passengers per year. It will increase the total capacity of BER to 28-30 million passengers.
Long delayed
The opening of the new airport, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) south of the German capital, has been delayed for years. Construction began in 2006 and it was originally scheduled to open in 2011, but the project has been delayed six times.
In 2018, the airport's operating company said BER would open in October 2020, and that it would invest a further €770 million, pushing the total cost to over €7 billion ($7.8 billion).
"It took us years to put the BER construction disaster in order," Lütke Daldrup said.
In contrast to a "travel cathedral" with wood paneling and natural stone floors in the airport's T1 terminal, T2 is expected to be a simpler design, with concrete and free ceilings. According to the airport, €200 million will be invested in T2, as well as in roads, bus stops and a building for federal police.
Germans take to the sky like never before
Germans are major frequent fliers. In the first half of this year more than 55 million people departed from German airports, most of them going to international destinations. This despite many problems in the industry.
Image: Reuters/AAP/D. England
Big planes or really big double-decker planes
Germans are known as fearless globetrotters and the statistics prove it: the total number of airline passengers was up 6 percent to 55.2 million in the first half of this year compared with 2016. Of those travelers, 43 million flew to international destinations, while around 12 million stayed within Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Decisions, decisions at the check-in kiosks
Within Europe the foreign destinations with the biggest growth were sunny places in the south. Travel to Cyprus increased by 78 percent, Greece by 20 percent and Portugal by nearly 16 percent. The biggest loser was Turkey. Though Germany has a large Turkish population, trips there were down by 9 percent.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B. Roessler
Private plane with the registration 16+01
Not everyone has to wait in those pesky lines or take off their shoes and belt for security clearance. Here German Chancellor Angela Merkel leaves her 143 seat plane, the Konrad Adenauer. But don't be too jealous, the plane had been used by Lufthansa for 10 years before being picked up and refurbished in 2009.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/R.Jensen
Plain interior with legroom for everyone
Despite the fact that many people complain that seats and legroom are shrinking, there is hardly any other practical option to flying, especially to far away places. So far this year the number of people flying to Africa from Germany was up 28 percent, while the number of those going to the US was up nearly 7 percent.
Image: picture-alliance/Daniel Kalker
Gourmet bamboo now on the inflight menu
Not everyone is just flying out of Germany. In June, to great fanfare two giant pandas - Meng Meng and Jiao Qing - were flown to Berlin on a special chartered plane from China. The pair is on loan to the Berlin Zoo for 15 years. Yet at this point no one knows if the cuddly couple has already booked a return flight.
Image: picture alliance/ZUMAPRESS/Xinhua
Not as orderly as it may seem from the outside
Despite the growing number of passengers this year, German airlines have received a lot of criticism. In July, the European Court of Justice ruled that companies could not levy additional fees if passengers cancel flights. And in August, government officials demanded that the country's air passenger duty be scrapped.
Image: Reuters/M. Dalder
After a while they all start to look alike
Once you reach your destination there is no guarantee that your luggage will be there. Passengers of Air Berlin know this problem better than most and it's one of the reasons why Germany's second-biggest airline recently declared bankruptcy. At this point it is still unclear if the company will be taken over or split up.
