Archives 2005

The supervisory board of Berlin Airports (FBS) approved the funding plan for Berlin Brandenburg International Airport BBI at the Schoenefeld site during its meeting today. According to the funding plan presented by FBS and current planning, € 1.983 billion will be nominally invested in the new airport from 2005 until BBI is opened in 2010. This corresponds to a real investment sum of approx. € 1.8 billion, once the figure has been adjusted to account for inflation. Interest payments and fees must be added to this investment figure to cover bank loans, which must be taken out.

Klaus Wowereit, the mayor of Berlin and chairman of the supervisory board, described the adoption of the funding plan by the supervisory board as an “important milestone and clear signal for the rapid construction of the capital’s BBI Airport. The figures demonstrate: even when public coffers are low, the construction of BBI Airport can still be financed under public sector management.”

The state premier of Brandenburg, Matthias Platzeck, stressed that BBI was “the most important infrastructure project in the Berlin-Brandenburg capital region. BBI will also help us in forming networks for a major business sector, namely aerospace. After the project had been officially approved, the adoption of the funding plan within just a few months means that a further vital step has been taken towards realizing BBI.”

Tilo Braune, undersecretary of state at the Federal Ministry of Transport, said: “The federal government backs the project and will provide financial support for the building of BBI over the next years. In this connection it should be remembered that the federal government is bearing the lion’s share of the costs to link the airport to the road, motorway and rail networks.”

The BBI funding plan envisages internal financing by FBS, bank loans and capital provided by the owners Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government.

As a next step, the parliamentary committees in Berlin and Brandenburg need to address the funding plan.

The owners Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government have been requested by the supervisory board to ensure that their contributions to the project are safeguarded in their respective budgets. The federal government took this step when its 2005 budget was adopted on 26th November 2004.

Initial expenditure will mainly cover the necessary planning work, preparatory works on the building site and purchasing land.

The regional authorities had already agreed on the funding for transport links to BBI. The federal government is funding the road link to BBI (link road to the A113new motorway), which will cost € 74 million. The regional authorities are also funding the rail link, including the terminal station, with assistance from the European Fund for Regional Development (EFRD). This involves € 496 million. The federal government is providing the lion’s share of this capital. The states of Berlin and Brandenburg are each investing € 30 million towards funding the rail link, including the station.

Further information is available from:

Berliner Flughäfen
Marketing and Corporate Communication
Ralf Kunkel
Tel. +49 (0) 30 / 6091-2055
Fax +49 (0) 30 / 6091-95-2055