Gov't terminal at Berlin's new airport opens

Source: Xinhua| 2020-10-22 01:04:09|Editor: huaxia

BERLIN, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Executive Transport Wing of the German Federal Ministry of Defense (BMVg) officially launched on Wednesday operations at the government terminal of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) in Schoenefeld, just south of the capital.

"We are very pleased to be able to carry out political-parliamentary flight operations here from Berlin-Schoenefeld as of today," said Johannes Stamm, deputy commander of the Executive Transport Wing, in a statement.

The new government terminal was "inaugurated" with the return on Wednesday of German Minister of Food and Agriculture Julia Kloeckner from a meeting of the European Union (EU) member states' agriculture ministers in Luxembourg.

For 26 years, the German Air Force's aircraft carrying VIPs (very important persons) had landed at and taken off from Berlin-Tegel Airport, which is scheduled to finally close its doors in early November.

Following several delays, Berlin Brandenburg Airport is slated to open to the public on Oct. 31. It will be the third largest airport in Germany. The first commissioning plan since the start of construction assumed that the airport would open in November 2011.

During the construction period, six announced opening dates had to be postponed as costs rose to at least six billion euros (7.1 billion U.S. dollars), around three times the amount originally planned. Enditem

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