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Airport "Willy Brandt", better known as BER
Photo: Marcus Bredt / GMP
If the corona pandemic turns out to be unfavorable, there is a risk of a significantly larger financial gap at the new BER airport in 2021 than this year.
The worst-case scenario plans for the federal and state governments to add up to 660 million euros, as stated in a letter from the Federal Ministry of Finance.
This year there are 300 million.
The RBB reported on the letter from Parliamentary State Secretary Bettina Hagedorn to the Green budget politician Sven-Christian Kindler;
Hagedorn appeals to the Ministry of Transport.
"It is already foreseeable that further financial resources will be required in the following years," says the paper that is available to the dpa news agency.
The ministry also recalls that prior to Corona, it was planned to start making money with BER from 2025.
"This is now shifting in line with the medium-term effects of the pandemic, which cannot yet be reliably assessed."
Some kind of "financial pyramid scheme"?
The Bundestag member Kindler criticized: "Every three months it turns out that the FBB still needs millions more to make ends meet."
What is necessary is a relentless cash drop and full transparency about costs and income.
Kindler also assumes that the airport company FBB overestimates its fixed assets and expects special write-offs worth billions.
Kindler therefore calls on Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) to clarify whether the FBB "uses a kind of financial pyramid scheme."
Airport boss Engelbert Lütke Daldrup had announced a financial requirement of 300 million euros for this year because of Corona in March.
For next year, the Supervisory Board approved the raising of shareholder loans of up to 552 million euros in October - the basis was the business plan for 2021, assuming a moderate course of the pandemic.
In her letter, Hagedorn names 540 million euros for this case and also quantifies the financial consequences of a worst case at 660 million euros.
Financial planning sewn on edge
The amounts for 2021 each include a financial requirement of around 375 million euros, which the company had already named before the Corona crisis.
The money is mainly needed to settle the bills for the new BER airport.
The Willy Brandt Airport opened about two weeks ago after years of delays.
At the opening, Lütke Dalrup said: "We want to be in the black in the mid-twenties", but limited: "We will see to what extent Corona allows this."
However: According to RBB (the detailed report can be found here), the financial planning is sewn to the edge even without a pandemic.
For 2021, the management had originally - without Corona - expected income from flight operations of 501 million euros.
If this forecast had not been realized, the deficits would have been even higher than planned.
Specifically, when asked, FBB admitted that "falling below the planned sales revenues will inevitably lead to a deficit in financing, since this has been calculated without any significant reserve positions."
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beb / dpa
