It sounds like a coup d'état: Berlin-Brandenburg Airport has not even been in operation for three weeks and the operating company is already threatening to close the airport. In Berlin they already know how this works, because with the sealing of Tempelhof and Tegel they already have experience in closing airports.

But it's really about the money. Immediately before the opening of BER, it became publicly known that the financial situation of Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH is very tense due to the corona pandemic. Not only that over the years the construction costs in terms of BER got out of hand, now there was also the fact that the income has literally collapsed due to the greatly reduced supply. The company is owned by the states of Berlin and Brandenburg and the Federal Republic of Germany.

What reproach do you want to make managing director Engelbert Lütke Daldrup because of the current situation? Best not at all, but the allegations are better off with the decision-makers in politics. The fact that the managing director sounds the alarm that things cannot go on like this financially, rather shows a sense of responsibility. You can blame the BER-Gesellschaft for pretty much everything in terms of "sloppiness in the past", but the team around Daldrup can definitely not do anything about the corona pandemic and the tough entry requirements of the Federal Republic of Germany.

But one question is entirely justified: why did you even open Terminal 1 in the middle of the corona crisis, only two days before the German “lockdown light”, knowing that demand would collapse again due to the upcoming new quarantine regulations? The old Schönefeld terminals could easily cope with the currently low number of passengers and also take over the former Tegel volume. Or asked the other way around? Why do you leave the SXF building open even though Terminal 1 is a symbolic journey to the moon from the capacity limit? The answers are simple: it was a political decision. BER had to open up at all costs so that a few politicians in Berlin and Brandenburg can save their faces. Another postponement was considered embarrassing. This time, however, she would have had a really sensible and understandable reason.

So politicians wanted BER Terminal 1 to go into operation so that everything looked nice and large, so that the old SXF halls also remained in operation. Just a few kilometers away as the crow flies, the federal government has had so-called “star virologists” intimidate new quarantine regulations and passed these against all warnings from other doctors, the travel industry, airports and airports. Anyone who wants to come to Germany from a risk area has to be in quarantine for at least five days and only with a negative PCR test, otherwise there will be ten days of isolation. The risk area is pretty much the whole world with a focus on Europe. Even the Robert Koch Institute showed that the previous measures were completely sufficient, because the infections brought in from abroad are so low that, according to the RKI, they do not play a significant role in the course of the pandemic.

The consequence of all the political decisions is that the BER company with empty coffers and sharply declining income, but two terminals in Schönefeld and Tegel are ready for operation. According to Handelsblatt, airport boss Daldrup threatened in a letter to the Berlin Senate Department for Finance that flight operations would have to be stopped if the federal government and the two states did not provide further financial aid at short notice. That would be the culmination of BER's long history: it was opened and not even four weeks later had to be closed again due to lack of money.

According to this media report, Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH needs around 300 million euros. An application was made to the FBB for 201,2 million euros, which is said to have flowed to the company this week in the form of a loan. A further 98,8 million euros were brought in as a grant by the three shareholders in October.

According to the Handelsblatt, the Berlin Senate Administration assumes that the money will not be enough. They have prepared for the fact that Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH will also be dependent on financial aid in the following years. At the current time, due to the constantly changing corona situation, it is not possible to make a forecast about the amount of possible financial requirements. In other words: Daldrup and his team will have to send more letters asking for money and apparently the only effective means of pressure is the threat of shame that they have to be locked.