Re Berlin Brandenburg Airport

Prior to this, a meeting was held at the airport on 18 December 2012, which was attended by the airport director Amann, Rainer Bomba and Ralf Christophers from the Supervisory Board, other representatives of the German government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg, and figures from Siemens and Bosch. Amann summed up the talks as follows: "We critically discussed the current situation and the next steps in the construction work for BER. It became clear that the findings to date made it less likely that the airport would be able to go operational as planned on 27 October 2013. Nevertheless, we decided not to reschedule the opening at that stage. Instead, we kept checking whether the original date was still viable. We completed this probe in the run-up to 4 January 2013."

Last Friday, Amann informed the airport's joint owners - Berlin, Brandenburg and the German government - about the outcome of the probe, which concluded that the airport would no longer be able to open on 27 October 2013 as planned. This further delay is the result of problems with the fire protection system, in particular the fresh air supply in the case of a fire and the complexity of the system as a whole. Based on the latest timetable, construction work was due to be completed by May 2013, allowing a five-month period for trial operations before the official opening.

Amann believes that it is early to discuss when the airport could possibly open.

The airport operator's Supervisory Board will discuss further action at BER and the consequences of postponing the airport's opening at its next meeting in January.