Germany: Debacle over Berlin's new airport draws derision at travel show

As Berlin hosts the world's largest annual travel fair, the ITB, much talk at the show this year has been over the city's long-delayed new airport and a strike that paralyzed air travel Friday. The German capital is currently served by two cold war airports - Tegel in the northwest and Schoenefeld to the southeast. Berlin Brandenburg airport was due to open in 2011, but several opening dates have been postponed as the project faced red tape and technical problems with smoke ventilation systems, cabling and doors. This week CE Karsten Muehlenfeld, who in January scrapped plans to open the airport at the end of 2017, was replaced by Engelbert Luetke Daldrup after a row over the firing of the project's construction head. No new opening date has been set. "It's such an embarrassment, they produce wonderful cars, their engineering is world class, the economy is strong, but they've got an airport they can't seem to build," said Tim Clark, the president of Emirates airline. The city of Berlin hopes the new airport will bring more visitors from overseas, both for business and tourism. Ryanair chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs said it would be too small when it opens. Berlin's two airports served 33m passengers last year while the new international hub, due to replace both Tegel and Schoenefeld, is set for initial capacity of 27m. "London has six airports and capacity for 130m, Paris has four airports and 110m capacity and Berlin is saying we'll be ok with capacity of 27 million and one airport?" asked Jacobs.<br/>