Green light for government terminal at the BER:
Federal government and FBB agree to binding objectives for construction of government airport
The federal government has come to an agreement with the Flughafengesellschaft Berlin Brandenburg (FBB) – the FBB airport company – about further concrete steps towards the construction of a government airport at the BER Berlin Airport. Issues pertaining to the necessary site clearance, including complex cable routing measures for the future government airport – at the expense of the federal government – were among the subjects determined in the recently signed framework agreement. These works, destined for implementation between the middle of 2020 and end of 2021, are the main prerequisite for the land transfer to the federal government for the government airport at the end of 2021. Signatories to the framework agreement were State Secretary Gunther Adler from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Dr Jürgen Gehb, board spokesman of the German Institute for Federal Real Estate (BImA), as well as Prof. Dr.-Ing. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, Chief Executive Officer of the FBB.
The new government terminal will represent a highly presentable reception area for state visits, as well as being a modern and functional terminal building for government flights. The project comprises reception facilities, an administrative building, as well as several hangars with their respective aircraft operation areas and outdoor facilities. The future location of the officially approved government airport lies in the northern part of what is currently Schönefeld Airport (SXF).
Beyond the site clearance, the framework agreement also determines the possibility for the FBB to take up a 25-metre-wide strip of the site in order to continue operations at Terminals C, D1 and D2 (with the inclusion of boarding by airport bus) of Schönefeld Airport until the end of 2025. In this way, up to 10 million passengers can further be handled at Schönefeld (SXF) until 2025. In combination with first expansion measures at the BER (Terminal 1E and extension of the baggage handling system), the available capacity of 43 million passengers shall be assured as of 2021.
The State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety, Gunter Adler, welcomes the agreement that has been concluded: "After a long phase of uncertainty and lack of clarity, the framework agreement represents for us a solid basis for planning and the essential requirement for the timely completion of the new government airport. Given that the airport company is to take on the planning and coordination of the cable relaying and subsequent site clearance, we can focus entirely on the actual building work itself."
Prof. Dr. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, Chief Executive Officer of the FBB airport company, sees a further important basis in the agreement, upon which passenger capacity – hashed out in the master plan delivered only a few weeks ago – can be increased at the BER site. "The framework agreement with the federal government is a solution that is beneficial for both sides. With this agreement, we are able to secure important levels of capacity at Schönefeld Airport through a traffic-oriented airside connection of three terminals within a 25-metre corridor by the end of 2025. This, in turn, will facilitate the gradual expansion of the BER site."
Dr Jürgen Gehb, board spokesman of the German Institute for Federal Real Estate (BImA), feels "the efforts of the federal government are justified, enabling the harmonious coexistence of the the government airport and the BER."
An interim terminal at Berlin Schönefeld Airport for the government airport has already been erected as of the beginning of 2017. The topping out ceremony took place on Ramp 1 on July 20th. The façade is currently being worked on and interior construction of the terminal has also begun at pace. The building envelope shall be closed off towards the end of the year. By summer of 2018, the terminal shall be fully completed.