WHAT OPEN COMPETITION?

Once upon a time, a group of European nations decided to pool resources, and move towards a federation, hoping to eventually operate under one government and one flag. We were told this would be a major asset for nations involved, in that it would be made easier for them to compete for all forms of business. Naturally, things never turn out to be that straight forward. A fine example of  what we could call national nepotism has taken place recently in the European heartland of Germany.

Berlin is concentrating its airports into one main hub, Schonefeld; this, by the way, was the former USSR airbase until the fall of the 'wall'. After the extensive updating, it will be known as Berlin Brandenburg International. Tempelhof has already gone, and Tegel will disappear when the much improved BBI is completed; whenever that might be.

Originally, travellers would have expected to be flying into the improved facility by June this year. There was a glitch however. The original contract was given to the German construction outfit, Hoch Tief-Bau. Unfortunately, they were found to have been involved in some under-hand business, so the process started all over again, and low and behold, the same outfit was awarded the business once more, in the face of pan European competition. The intended completion of the project is now August 2013. This setback has incurred further problems with all the franchisees, whose contracts were to have commenced by summer this year, creating a series of expensive court cases for the authorities.

The project has triggered the usual noise concerns, which one would anticipate. Plus a low level war amongst vying taxi businesses.

STRANGE HOW THE NAVEL GAZING BBC NEVER REPORTS SUCH MAYHEM.