This week we’re changing the format of our weekly news round-up slightly by giving you the headlines of the news items we cover up front. This way it will be easier for you to scan the contents in order for you to jump to the articles that interest you most quickly. We hope you like it. Here are the topics of this week:
- Berlin’s delayed airport
- Fog blanket causes trouble in Australia
- Construction starts in Israel’s South
- German thief escapes Thai airport
In Europe belated Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) made it into two different news articles this week: In the first article a USA Today reporter who took a tour of the airport last week provided an update through a series of photos. The photos are interesting as from most angles the airport looks entirely finished. The second article, published in The Independant then looked closer to costs of the delayed opening. The article revealed that its 24-hour lighting and air-conditioning systems had driven costs to €20m (£17m) a month, without a single aircraft taking off or landing. The article then quotes Der Spiegel, a German news magazine, by saying “[The airport] has become the most costly, non-operational construction site in the country”.
Over in Australia something quite different became the issue of the week. And it’s A fairly unusual ones too: fog. Yes, exactly; you don’t really associate fog with the continent, do you?. The local The Age newspaper wrote on Wednesday that thick fog caused Sydney-bound passengers more delays with hundreds of Melbourne Airport (MEL) passengers either grounded or having flights cancelled. In the same article a meteorologist explained what happened: On Tuesday, a thick fog descended on Sydney causing flight delays, ferry cancellations and traffic difficulties. Visibility was reduced to just 100 metres in some areas of Sydney.
In Israel the Haaretz Daily Newspaper reported that this week the bulldozers and steamrollers finally kicked up their first cloud of sand as work began on the new international airport named the Ilan and Asaf Ramon Airport in southern Israel. According to the article the airport, which is 18 kilometers north of Eilat, will serve domestic and international flights. It’s projected to open in 2016, and to be capable of handling between 1.8 million and 2.25 million passengers a year.
And to finish the news week, we found this story, reported by Sky News: A German jewel thief has gone on the run in Thailand after escaping from his escorts, who had reportedly fallen asleep at the airport. Carlo Konstantin Kohl was being extradited from Australia to Germany when bad weather forced an overnight stop at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport (BKK). According to The Bangkok Post, Thai authorities said he managed to slip out of a fire exit in a transit lounge after he disarmed it by disconnecting the electricity. The two Australian guards watching him had apparently both fallen asleep.
That’s all for this week, safe travels!
[Photo from Wikipedia – some rights reserved]