Berlin Brandenburg Airport Keynote

Transcript

Engelbert Luetke Daldrup:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Berlin. We're happy and proud to have to host this conference in our wonderful city. Berlin looks back to rich aviation history. Otto Lilienthal, a pioneer of aviation known as the Flying Man, made his flights with a glider here near Berlin in the 19th century. Tempelhof was already designed as an airport in 1923 and was one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. Deutsche Lufthansa, Carsten Spohr told us, was formed in Berlin in 1926. Germany— Berlin is the cradle of German aviation. Berlin is also recognized as a unique city. Signs of the former division are still visible in the city even after the glorious reunion That happened nearly 30 years ago. However, Berlin is perceived as a city of opportunities and the startup hotspot. Just like Berlin itself is constantly evolving, so is the demand for traveling to our city due to the fact that our new airport, BER. Is unfinished and delayed, it has become a topic of conversation around the world. However, today I would like to change your perception and introduce the new BER Airport as an airport of opportunities. For starters, I would like to introduce our company, The FBB, the Berlin Airports. We are a company, an airport company, operating 2 well-established airports and have been building the 3rd one for much too long. Roughly 2,000 employees are running Tegel and Schönefeld and building the new Berlin Airport. Our impact On the labor market and the economies of Berlin, of the capital region, is already remarkable. The operation— operating airports have already generated more than 20,000 jobs within the capital region. The amount of these jobs will double in the next 10 to 20 years. Compared to all other German cities, Berlin is the most attractive destination. There might be more important airports in Germany, and you remember Karlskrona, but no destination is more important than the capital. 25% of all passengers coming to Germany want to go to Berlin. What makes our city so attractive is our history, our vibrant cultural scene, the diversity of arts, the bustling nightlife, the innovative startup community, and the business community. All this has turned Berlin into the prime destination for business and tourism in Germany. In the past years, we have seen increasing passenger flow and passenger numbers. Growth in Berlin seems to be almost unstoppable. Even the Air Berlin bankruptcy one year ago did not stop the growth. It only sloped it. Keep in mind that Air Berlin was the largest carrier in this city, and we still grow— grew in the year 2017 when the Air Berlin bankruptcy occurred. When we look at the numbers, we see that our growth path is continuing, and the achievement is a very great achievement if you look at the circumstances of last year. Of course, the bankruptcy of Air Berlin has resulted in a major change in the market shares of our airport, but it also opened really new market opportunities. After taking over main parts of Air Berlin, EasyJet is now the main carrier at both Berlin airports. The market share of EasyJet is 30%. The second largest carrier is the Lufthansa Group with 23.7%, 10% with the Lufthansa, 10% with Eurowings, and a few percent with Austrian and Swiss. The second strongest carrier in Berlin is Ryanair, now flying at both airports in Schönefeld and Tegel. With these numbers in mind, We are looking forward to the opening of the new Berlin Airport in October 2020. It is probably fair to say that the history of this construction site has not always been glorious. Our company and staff have experienced some serious setbacks. Nevertheless, Now we are on a stable path to commission this airport in the year 2020. I am aware that in the past, previous CEOs of the company promised various dates of opening of the BER. However, the situation today is completely different from what it was in the past years. We have analyzed this project very hard. We worked on all the delays. We solved the vast majority of the problems and challenges. We have now a really reliable and secure timetable. External experts help us, and we know we will open the Berlin Brandenburg Airport In the October of 2020, you can rely on this. We open the airport with Terminal One in October 2020, and we will open it as it has been designed and constructed in the. Past 10 years. There will be some improvement of customers' experience and traveling experience in Berlin with the new Terminal 1. But we don't stop development. We just started a few months ago to build a second terminal, additional terminal at the BER, Terminal T2. At this new terminal, we will implement the latest technologies like self-service check-in, automatic baggage drop, an efficient baggage sorting area, and newly designed security lanes. As you can imagine, this terminal will be a role model for the future development of BER. And the future development was designed and laid out in a master planning procedure We made in the last year, and we will extend Berlin Brandenburg Airport step by step up to 55 million passengers. In the future, we want to become the BR to become an example for customer initiatives regarding all stages of passenger journey developed. Cooperatively between the airport and the stakeholders. From security screening innovations to ease of access, the airport community is currently embarking on a journey to improve airport services. Due to the history as a divided city, Berlin missed the early development of airport hubs in Germany. You remember Carsten Spohr. But we feel that Berlin has a big potential for further development. Therefore, we need to work on the big demand of long-haul connections to Berlin. Berlin is indeed a national target for long-haul flights. We clearly see a demand for direct long-haul connection to and from Berlin. The new infrastructure of the BER will be able to handle these long-haul flights very efficiently, especially routes to Asia and North America, but also further routes to Middle East and Africa will develop. All airlines are invited to work with us, and we feel that Berlin gives very good opportunities for further development. Not only in my opinion, Berlin is the most underestimated capital in the world. Germany has the strongest economy of the entire European Union. Enormous government body, embassies, associations caused an unserved demand in our capital. The FBB, the Berlin Airport, is not only participating that recognized the benefits of increased connectivity in the area. The demand for increase of long-haul services from Berlin manifests itself through an initiative that is called Connect 25. It has been lately formed by main business and tourism associations in Berlin. Thus, initiative seeks to create awareness on a political level for a better international connectivity of the German capital. As you can see, we are looking forward to a journey with many challenges but also a lot of excitement. It never gets boring in Berlin, I promise. My company will build the BER. the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport. The BER will open in October 2020. We want you to support us, enable us to support you. In this sense, I wish us some very exciting and interesting days in Berlin on this conference. Take some time to explore our city. It is, in many aspects, a great experience. Great to have you here. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.

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