A German court gave the long-awaited green light on Thursday for a new airport in Berlin that would open in 2011 and consolidate the capital's three existing airports into a single hub.
Germany's Federal Administrative Court was ruling on a complaint by local residents who were seeking to block plans for a EUR2 billion (USD$2.42 billion) overhaul of Schoenefeld -- the dilapidated old airport of East Berlin -- on noise grounds.
Its decision brings to an end years of wrangling and delays, paving the way for the construction of Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI), a new airport capable of handling 22 million passengers annually.
"The path is now free for a modern, international, competitive airport in Berlin," Chancellor Angela Merkel said.
But even as the project received the final go-ahead, it remained steeped in controversy. In a nod to the local residents who brought the suit, judge Stefan Paetow announced what comes close to a complete ban on flights landing and taking off at the new airport between 10 p.m. (2100 GMT) and 6 a.m.
Joachim Hunold, head of Germany's second largest airline Air Berlin, called the restrictions a "catastrophe".
"If 10 p.m. is the deadline for scheduled flights, a profitable air traffic in Berlin is no longer possible," he said.
The idea to develop a single modern airport for Berlin was hatched some 15 years ago, amid the euphoria that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall.
But as the city's hopes of becoming a booming metropolis faded amid the reality of a shrinking population and huge public debt, the airport project was scaled down. It has now come to symbolise the city's struggle to adjust to re-unification.
In 2003, a construction permit was finally granted to transform Schoenefeld -- a modest airport in southeast Berlin that has become a European hub for Easyjet. The new airport will absorb capacity shared between Schoenefeld and Berlin's two western airports, Tegel and Tempelhof.
Some 17 million passengers passed through the three Berlin airports in 2005, well below totals in Frankfurt and Munich -- cities with a combined population half that of Berlin's.
The project's supporters, including Germany's airlines, have argued that construction of a single hub airport is essential to boosting the profile and attractiveness of Berlin, which until last year did not even have direct transatlantic flights.
The new airport will be the most important infrastructure project in east Germany and experts have said it could create 40,000 jobs in a region where one in five people is unemployed.
But critics of the new airport abound.
Some Berliners like the convenience of Tegel, just a 15 minute drive from the Brandenburg Gate, while others are loath to see Tempelhof, the airport where US planes landed during the 1948-49 Berlin airlift, shut.
Some experts are also dubious about whether a new hub airport will attract more passengers through Berlin.
"Berlin is an anomaly. It's the capital of the most populous country in the EU but it has few flights outside the bloc," said Dan Solon of airline consultancy Avmark International. "Still, I'm not sure there's a real case for a huge new airport."
