Mr. Lütke Daldrup, on November 8, 2020 the last plane took off from Berlin-Tegel. The airport was an icon. Many loved him. How do you feel after a few months when you see the empty system today?
The closure of Tegel was a very emotional moment for me too. I have often flown from there into the world myself. But of course the corona pandemic has changed our perspective a bit. Air traffic has plummeted. We have seen that hangars have been converted into test centers and later into vaccination centers. We gained a bit of distance there. It is a transition: We are now flying from BER and making space in Tegel for a future location. We are leaving Tegel with a good feeling because we know that a beautiful, modern piece of the city is emerging there.
The operating license for Tegel Airport expires on May 4th. One less location to worry about. Are you glad you’re off the site then?
In the past six months, we haven’t had to worry much about Tegel. We now had 20 employees there; it used to be 500. We fully concentrated on operations at BER. For us, this is a process that was planned for a long time and is now being implemented.
The operating license was still valid for the first six months after the BER went into operation. Was there ever a serious need to be able to make use of it before the closure?
From our point of view, Tegel could definitely have been closed on November 8, 2020. It was clear to everyone at the airport that we would not be able to return. That would have been so complicated and time-consuming that it was a more theoretical option. The fathers of planning law imagined it differently 15 years ago, but we knew that we would be able to operate BER without any difficulties after the long test phase. In this respect, this regulation was not necessary from our point of view. But nobody wanted to touch the planning law again because everyone wanted to avoid a renewed debate about the closure.
Although the flight operations were history, you still had to take care of the site. What exactly did that include?
We dismantled buildings. For example the makeshift Terminal C3 and the pedestrian bridge between Terminal A and C. All of our office space has been cleared and we have done a lot of other things that we could already do without questioning the operability. For example, we had to continue to ensure the IT and energy supply for the buildings and, of course, security personnel patrolled the site. Now we are leaving on Tuesday, then the weather service, air traffic control and the federal police can return their rooms.
What other costs did you incur as a result?
A few hundred thousand euros every month.
In view of the airport company’s problematic financial situation, would you have preferred to save the money and have done the handover earlier?
That would certainly have saved money. Two or three years ago we also asked whether these six months could not be shortened. But the Senate Environmental Administration did not want that. They wanted to keep this safety buffer. As an airport company, we are required to implement that. However, we have massively reduced the effort in Tegel. We really only did what was absolutely necessary because we look very strictly at the money.
Until recently there were many supporters of the idea of keeping Tegel open. Then Corona came and brought air traffic to a standstill. Could BER get so tight at some point that one would wish that Tegel was still there?
As early as 2017, we were certain that we could handle up to 58 million passengers at BER if the capacity there was expanded completely. In 2019 we had 35.6 million passengers. Some then gave fantastic numbers of how growth is going on. I was never someone to believe in it. That always reminded me of the debate after the fall of the Berlin Wall, when Berlin was ragged about as a city of five million.
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Now, 30 years later, we have a population of just 3.8 million. You have to keep your feet on the ground during developments. We are not London, we are not Paris with agglomerations of more than 15 million people.
Today it is more a question of when you will reach the level of 2019 again.
We hope that it will be the case again by 2025 at the latest. But we also know about climate change and the development of long-distance transport at Deutsche Bahn. For this we have a wonderful train station at the airport, which can restructure the internal German traffic flows. At the same time, we have growth potential for longer connections, especially to North America and Asia.
[Lesen Sie auch: “16 Gates, 16 Erinnerungen von Honecker bis Podolski” – Tagesspiegel-Autoren über ihre Beziehung zu Tegel.]
If you ask me how things will look in ten years, then we will have significantly more long-haul flights at BER. We will continue to be very strong in our bread and butter business in European traffic. But we will see fewer short-haul flights because they will be shifted to rail.
Last year only 9.1 million passengers flew in Berlin. But hopefully the pandemic will also end at some point. Why is it so hesitant to return to pre-crisis levels afterwards?
All companies in the aviation industry are currently suffering dramatic losses. That is to say, everyone will look very carefully at their own expense. As a result, not every flight that could be offered will be offered. You will only be able to work your way up to the previous level step by step.
How will that be spread across private and business trips?
Private trips are coming back, digital vacations don’t work. People want to meet and see new things. Business travel, on the other hand, will not return to pre-crisis levels in the foreseeable future. All companies have learned to hold digital meetings. We may only see 70 percent of these trips again. This crisis has disrupted a particular segment of transport.
Climate change is also gaining importance in the public debate. What does that mean for air traffic?
Some people ask themselves privately whether they can behave differently. In this case, it will certainly be possible to partially replace the internal German traffic when the train brings more ICEs onto the route. For us, all this means that we no longer expect 55 million passengers in 2040, but only around 45 to 50 million. As a result, our expansion projects will take place more slowly and will not begin until the second half of the 2020s.
What does this new calculation mean for the Airport City?
The airport city may even be able to develop more dynamically than we could expect under normal conditions. Berlin is a very attractive real estate market, and it will stay that way. From 2025 you can get to the main train station from the airport in 20 minutes. We are a location that is extremely well connected to the center of Berlin, the entire region and beyond to the entire world. This is unique.
Most recently, the debate arose again as to whether the U7 should be extended to BER. How do you feel about it?
An airport operator wants optimal transport connections, so the U7 would be a great help. The owners Berlin and Brandenburg have to decide whether it can be financed. We are already well connected with the S-Bahn, regional trains and ICs. But of course the U7 would be a good additional connection. Especially for the total of 800,000 Berliners who live in the catchment area.
The one approved last week FBB’s annual financial statements are devastating. Do you think that FBB will be able to grow financially in the long term?
We are a location that has to bear a very high debt burden because, unlike other airports, we have privately financed large parts of the airport construction in the past. We have taken out EUR 4.5 billion in loans for this purpose. Due to the corona pandemic, the airport can no longer bear this burden on its own. Partial debt relief is an instrument that can be used to put the airport on an economically successful footing.
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When we have reached the level of traffic from before the crisis in 2025, which is a conservative estimate, then we can stand on our own two feet again. An airport with 30 or 40 million passengers makes money and can also service loans.
[Engelbert Lütke Daldrup ist Chef der Flughafengesellschaft Berlin-Brandenburg. Nicht nur in Tegel ist nun Schluss, der Flughafenchef hört auf – vorzeitig, im September dieses Jahres. Der heute 64-Jährige übernahm den Posten 2017, unter ihm eröffnete der BER im vergangenen Herbst. Zwangsläufig wurde damit Tegel geschlossen.]
In Berlin there are doubts in the coalition among the Greens as to whether the funds should be made available. What would happen if one of the owners refused to pay?
I rely on reason quite soberly. Of the 4.5 billion loans we took out, 3.5 billion are public guarantees. Nobody will be interested in getting the airport company into trouble. Because that would always be more expensive. In this respect, the debt relief concept with 1.2 billion euros and the liquidity aid for the next few years, even under Corona conditions, is the much more sensible economic concept. Despite all the frustration that BER went online eight years later: Now it is finally here, now it can do something for the economy in all of East Germany.
Let’s come back to Tegel Airport: You are a city planner yourself. In your opinion, what are the characteristics of the future plans?
The approach that Tegel is trying to achieve is particularly exciting to test many new technologies for the city of the future. Be it in dealing with rainwater, be it in the energetic treatment of buildings or the entire timber construction quarter. But it is also possible to create a bit of new park landscape with the 200 hectare landscape park.
And last but not least, the idea of bringing technology and universities together in a new innovation hub in the Urban Tech Republic is an exciting thing. There is hardly a city in the world that has 450 hectares in the middle of the city where it can redesign such a huge urban development project.
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