Completion of BER still on schedule Overall financing finalised

At its last meeting in 2018, the airport company’s Supervisory Board dealt intensively with the progress of the construction works at BER. External experts from TÜV Rheinland and from schedule management were consulted. Other important topics include the status of the expansion programme, current flight operations, and the successful finalisation of the overall financing and the business plan for 2019.

The completion of BER is at a crucial stage and is progressing well overall. The number of critical trades has been reduced from four to two. This was also confirmed by the external experts’ reports given to the Supervisory Board. In particular, work on the smoke extraction control system has progressed well and has been completed faster than expected. The experts also confirmed that the work on the sprinkler systems has largely been completed.

Parts of the fire alarm system and the cable trades, on the other hand, were named by both the external experts and the management as trades, the completion of which must continue to be the special focus of the entire construction organisation. Known risks have manifested themselves there. The Supervisory Board remains confident that BER will go into operation in October 2020 and will be informed again about the progress regarding the critical trades at a meeting in January.

The management continued to report on the preparations for the start of airport operations. A superordinate project organisation is being set up to manage all processes until BER becomes fully operational to ensure the airport’s operating capacity and the relocation of flight operations from Tegel to BER.

With regard to the expansion programme, the management reported to the Supervisory Board, among other things, on the opening of the temporary waiting hall on the apron at Schönefeld Airport, the start of the associated reconstruction work on Pier 3a from January 2019 and the progress on the construction site at Terminal 2. The interim building of the government terminal, which has been recently completed, was handed over to the federal government at the beginning of October. The apron areas are expected to be completely finished before the end of this year.

The FBB timetable for closed overall financing was adhered to. The management reported to the supervisory board that FBB’s liquidity was finally secured on the basis of the financing agreements already concluded in 2016 until commissioning in 2020. Further financing issues, such as the long-term expansion/master plan beyond 2020, can thus be addressed more flexibly in terms of time constraints. The airport company’s operating result (EBITDA) for 2018 is expected to be slightly above budget at around EUR 110 million.

Rainer Bretschneider, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH: “We can look back on a year in which the airport company has come a good deal closer to completing BER. Much of the progress envisaged has been made. Even though not all interim targets have been met, I am still working on the basis that we are opening in October 2020. We must continue to make every effort to ensure this becomes a reality.”

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH: “Even in the critical trades, the processing speed and the quality of the work have noticeably increased in recent weeks. Now the companies Bosch and ROM must succeed in further increasing their commitment until the final completion of their trades”.