  n
a number of occasions, FlyingTypers
has covered the teething woes of the new German airport in Berlin, named
after the iconic former mayor of Berlin and German chancellor, Willy
Brandt.
As controversial as some of Brandt’s policies and politics have
been, a number of his statements are still accepted basics of German
politics and continue to be widely quoted.
So when looking at the BER airport-to-be,
we can only wonder: What would Willy say?
In his very first official statement as
German Chancellor on October 28th, 1969, Brandt spoke the famous words
“we have to chance more democracy!”
After he stepped down as a Chancellor,
Herr Brandt looked back saying “politicians who are into worshipping
dogmatic ideology or waste their time by staking out claims on the pedestal
of statesmanlike infallibility do not deserve any public confidence.”
Those who named the new airport of Germany’s
capital after Willy Brandt would be well advised to consider what the
bearer of this name would have thought about the nitty-gritty around
the construction and repeatedly delayed openings.
 In
particular, Berlin Mayor Wowereit seems unable to realize that Brandt’s
shoes are more than just too big for him. While Wowereit had to step
back under allegations that he had not told the truth about having been
uninformed about issues pertinent to the opening delay, it seems that
he nevertheless has ambitions to take the seat as Chairman of the supervisory
board of the Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH again, after the former
state of Brandenburg, MP Matthias Platzeck, stepped back for health
reasons.
Indeed the values Brandt stood for—German
unity, humanity, liberty, and freedom from any kind of oppression—seem
to be out of favor in the current airport management.
Namely, the current CEO of the FBB, Hartmut
Mehdorn, notoriously against allegations of “sanitizing”
the German Railway and driving Air Berlin deep into the red while selling
off most of its corporate assets, is, to some observers, obviously more
interested in promoting his own agenda and profile than he is in fact-based
decision making.
Rumors that Mehdorn, a manager who reportedly
was appointed as CEO because of his political connections and not because
of a proven track record in problem solving and aligning projects, does
not get along with Horst Amman, the airport’s technical manager.
Amman took over the Herculean task of inventorying the issues in order
to develop an action plan, resulting in the eventual opening of the
German Reichshauptstadt’s prestige airport, as confirmed in an
article by the German SPIEGEL magazine recently.
Mehdorn discredited his technical manager
Amman in public, saying, “I certainly do not need an inventory
of shortcomings to continue construction of this airport,” and
even approached the still-chairman of the board, MP Platzeck, in order
to accomplish a dismissal of Mr. Amman.
Although the board rejected Mehdorn’s
demands, it is obvious that there is no working cooperation within the
top management of the BER airport.
Mr. Amman reportedly has finished his
inventory as of late and will release the consolidated findings after
September 30th. In the meantime, he forges ahead—facts be damned—advocating
plans for a partial opening of the North pier of the new airport, intended
for LCC operations and not affected by the fire protection issues of
the main building.
That, however, would mean that all three
Berlin airports (Schoenefeld, Tegel, and Willy Brandt) would operate
simultaneously for an indefinite time, thus increasing the general costs
of operations for all airport users.
While Mehdorn, in his former and not all
too successful capacity as Air Berlin CEO, has sued the Berlin Airports
Company for damages resulting from the delayed opening, he is now rebuffing
similar claims as “outrageous.”
Figures provided by the SPIEGEL
indicate that prepping the North Pier for operations would require investments
in excess of 5 million Euros and operating six flights per day out of
the LCC terminal would require another half million Euros per month.
Mr. Amman’s plans called for a start
of operations at Willy Brandt only where at least the oldest airport,
Schoenefeld, could be closed so that costs are kept to a minimum.
The “Berliner Zeitung”
reported two weeks ago that there are plans to terminate Mr. Amman’s
contract (which runs until June 2017) after the German federal elections
taking place on September 22nd.
It is safe to say that Willy Brandt himself
would not look kindly upon such clashes and petty wars.
It is also reasonable to suppose that
Brandt would likely side with the facts-based, reticent, and hands-on
achiever Amman than with Mehdorn, who has a track record of big announcements
coupled with less than desirable achievements.
So much for chancing more democracy, as
would be befitting for the capital airport of Germany.
So what would “Willy,” as
many elder Germans still call him, likely say?
Noting the celestial imagination of the
afterlife, “beam me up, Scotty” seems plausible.
Geoffrey/Jens
To view previous articles on BBI
click here
and here
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