New Berlin Airport Finally Opens

Berlin Brandenburg airport opened on Saturday after a nine-year delay. It was initially slated to open in October 2011, but a series of technical and planning problems forced officials to abandon six opening dates, according to The Independent.

The airport has cost $7 billion, about three times what was originally planned. On other hand, The opening of the new airport's Terminal 2 has been delayed until early next year because it isn't currently needed.

“Finally we can put our airport into operation. It was a long road. It wasn't an easy road  everyone who is gathered here today knows that, the airport CEO Engelbert Luetke Daldrup reported, at a brief opening ceremony with national and regional officials.

Moreover, BER's opening spells the end of West Berlin's Cold War-era Tegel airport, the busier of the two aging and increasingly cramped airports that so far served the reunited German capital.

Noteworthy, the idea of a central airport for the German capital emerged after the country's reunification in 1991 and planning began just one year later. The airport was initially to be named "Berlin Brandenburg International".

In 1996, the three shareholders Berlin, the Brandenburg state and the federal government decided that to meet regional demand the airport would be built at Schönefeld, already the site of an airport, according to euronews.