Actually, Berlin wanted to temporarily close the airport and only let Schönefeld in operation - because hardly anything is flying anymore. But not all owners went along. The ghost airports are becoming expensive anyway.
Berlin (dpa) - In Berlin, both airports remain online despite a sharp drop in passenger numbers. In order to cope with the loss of revenue in the Corona crisis, the operating company is to receive millions in government aid.
The states of Berlin and Brandenburg and the federal government agreed on this on Monday. If the three parliaments agree, the state airport company could receive up to 300 million euros in additional equity as corona aid this year.
"This decision confirms our efforts to date to act as cost-effectively as possible in the current situation in order to survive this difficult time for the company," said airport manager Engelbert Lütke Daldrup. Berlin, however, failed with the co-partners to enforce the immediate closure of Tegel Airport. That should also cut costs.
The airport owners want to talk about it again after Easter. The decisive factor is then how much public life will then be restricted in order to contain the corona pandemic. The previous measures apply until April 19.
There are currently only a few thousand passengers a day at Tegel and Schönfeld airports, with an average of around 100,000 in total. The terminals are now closed except for one. According to internal calculations, the operators in Tegel alone miss a million euros in sales per day. The company has requested short-time work.
The airport company was hoping for monthly savings of around six million euros if Tegel were temporarily closed and only flown by Schönefeld. The freight center is located there, night flights are allowed differently than in Tegel. Berlin would have followed the example of Paris, which closes Orly Airport on Wednesday. However, Federal Minister of Transport Andreas Scheuer (CSU) insisted that both locations in the German capital be left online.
The governments of Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government also want to put more money into the new capital city airport BER. From 2021 to 2024, the company still has a financial gap of 792 million euros according to the business plan. Half of it wants to procure it on the capital market, the other half from its owners. They agreed to inject the capital on Monday.
The financial framework for BER has so far been 6.5 billion euros, of which at least 2.7 billion euros is tax money. The cost of the project has more than tripled since the groundbreaking in 2006. An opening is planned for October 31 of this year after several missed appointments. The operators need the additional money, because they still have to pay bills and supplements for the BER after commissioning.
The inspectors of the TÜV have been back on the construction site since Monday, as a spokesman for the inspection organization confirmed. The experts went into quarantine on March 18 due to a suspected corona case that was later confirmed. The other colleagues could have used the quarantine time, the spokesman said. They have looked at reports and documentation at home, the spokesman said. The specialist service "AviationNetOnline" reported on the return of the TÜV.