Friday March 12th 2021
In the black until 2026 at the earliest
BER needs further billions from the state
The new capital city airport is already in debt with 4.5 billion euros. That was before the Corona crisis, however: Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government have to add more money in order to be able to bridge the "long dry spell" that follows with fewer passengers.
The public sector is to support the ailing capital city airport BER with a further 1.9 billion euros. The financial plan provides for this for the next few years, as the operating company FBB announced after a meeting of the supervisory board. Due to the slump in air traffic due to the Corona crisis, there will be black numbers at the earliest in 2026. The owners Berlin, Brandenburg and the federal government have to support the airport financially for 2020 and 2021 because of the pandemic and the drop in passengers. FBB supervisory board chief Rainer Bretschneider said that the supervisory board had unanimously appealed to the shareholders to support the management's proposals.
FBB is in debt with 4.5 billion euros. The concept envisages that the shareholders will provide a total of just under 1.9 billion euros in five annual stages from 2022. Of this, EUR 1.1 billion are earmarked for partial debt relief for the airport company and around EUR 800 million as liquidity aid, said FBB boss Engelbert Lütke Daldrup. In addition, the Corona aid for 2020/2021 of around 960 million euros is to be converted into grants. The 660 million euros for 2021 will not be entirely needed, "even if the crisis lasts catastrophically long".
The federal government announced that the owners will discuss the financial requirements at a shareholders' meeting on March 19. "The federal government will meet its responsibility as a co-owner of FBB in accordance with the shareholding relationships with the other shareholders," declared the Federal Ministry of Finance. Brandenburg also stands by the airport, said a spokesman for the finance ministry in Potsdam. Solutions will be found together.
Berlin's Finance Senator Matthias Kollatz said it was about "bridging a dry spell that will last for several years". To do this, a decision had to be reached quickly in the consensus of the three shareholders and their parliaments. "Furthermore, state aid regulations must be observed."
Supervisory board approves departure
After years of delays due to construction problems, BER opened at the end of October 2020. The costs rose from around 2.7 billion euros to just under six billion euros. The 64-year-old Lütke Daldrup still has a contract until March 2022, but wants to quit at the end of September. The supervisory board agreed.
Lütke Daldrup's early departure came as a surprise. But around the airport and in the industry, many people understand this step. Because the trained spatial planner took over the FBB chief post in March 2017 and, unlike his many predecessors, managed to open BER after years of delay. In a letter to the supervisory board, Lütke Daldrup wrote that he saw the "tasks he had taken on at the time as having essentially been fulfilled".
Due to the slump in air traffic in the virus pandemic, a successor has to steer the airport through the crisis. In the vicinity of the owners it was said that they would sound out whether the managing director Aletta von Massenbach, who is responsible for finances, would be an option for the job. The long-time manager of the Frankfurt airport operator Fraport has only been on board since September 2020. Bretschneider announced that the succession would be clarified quickly.
For 2021, Lütke Daldrup expects around 10.7 million passengers – and thus only 30 percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019 with 35.6 million. FBB does not expect a recovery in passenger numbers until 2025. The airport therefore wants to reduce costs and is canceling around 80 percent of the investment of 500 million euros planned for the next five years.
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