Airport infrastructure in ‘pre-post pandemic’ period: Berlin Brandenburg T2 debut prompts questions

At different speeds, airport infrastructure plans are regaining some traction. This three-part report looks at different geographical examples which epitomise the wide variance in attitudes to infrastructure plans in this ‘pre-post pandemic’ period.

In Singapore, where it once appeared that Changi Airport’s Terminal 5 scheme could be halted as quickly and decisively as a Russian tank, the Transport Minister has confirmed the government’s latter-day commitment to it without actually providing a commitment.

In Berlin Terminal 2 – which was tacked onto the 1990's Berlin Brandenburg Airport Master Plan almost as an afterthought because the initial plan was so far out of date on account of construction delays that began at the start of a previous decade – will finally open in late Mar-2022. However, that opening prompts as many questions as it does answers.

Meanwhile in the UK, a principled scheme to replace an ageing terminal at Leeds Bradford Airport with an ecologically friendly and ‘no growth’ alternative has been scuppered by a supposedly ecologically friendly government which demanded a public enquiry. The airport, unsurprisingly, has thrown in the towel.