Epic fail and cautious success - Berlin Brandenburg Airport and New York LaGuardia Terminal B

Abstract

Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport in Berlin and LaGuardia International Airport in New York City offer thoughtful contrasts of how to undertake (LaGuardia) and how not to undertake (Berlin-Brandenburg) contemporary airport megaprojects. Both airports faced comparable problems–aging, obsolete and crowded terminal facilities, insufficient capacity to accommodate projected passenger growth, and poor landside rail access–but each took a different organizational approach to solving them. Following two failed attempts to put together a public-private partnership arrangement to build a new Berlin airport, the German state governments of Berlin and Brandenburg took the unto themselves, despite having no experience planning, designing or building airports. The results were predictably disastrous: when it finally opened in October 2020, Berlin-Brandenburg was nine years over-schedule and €4 billion over budget. In many ways, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the public agency responsible for redeveloping LaGuardia, actually had the harder job. They had to keep LaGuardia fully up and running all the while reconfiguring and rebuilding its main terminal building, access roadways and taxiways. To do so, the Port Authority relied on similar experience gained at New York City's other major airports, Kennedy and Newark, as well as its own experienced planning and project management personnel. The Port Authority was also had extensive experience putting together public-private development deals, something its counterpart in Berlin did not. As a result, LaGuardia has managed to meet its construction cost and schedule targets.