It’s been a rather quiet airport week. It could have been a big one with the announced strike by LaGuardia & JFK staff but luckily it got called off at the last minute. So here’s what we found this week:
- Berlin’s Airport saga explained
- Melbourne’s curfew inevitable?
- Bag with NZ$1m goes missing at Hong Kong airport
Berlin’s new capital airport (BER) woes aren’t exactly news anymore. The saga has been going on for years now and we’ve covered it multiple times. This week, however, Bloomberg published a very informative story about how Berlin’s futuristic airport became a $6 Billion embarrassment which is well worth a read. The currently latest prediction is that construction should be completed by the middle of 2016 and if all goes according to plan the airport should begin operations in 2017. Let’s hope so!
Melbourne Airport (MEL) always had the upper hand over Sydney when it came to operating hours. Unlike the harbour city, Melbourne doesn’t have a curfew. Now, however, The Age published an article this week suggesting that a night-time curfew for flights at Melbourne Airport is inevitable unless the state and federal governments curb encroaching housing development. As the city has grown, successive state governments have approved housing on land affected by flight paths – despite concerns from the federal government and the corporation that runs the airport. In the same article planning Minister Richard Wynne also said it was important Melbourne did not follow Sydney’s lead and stop planes coming in at night. “A curfew-free Tullamarine Airport is crucial to the economic health of the Victorian economy, and will not be compromised,” he said.
And to finish the week off we found a little airport robbery story for you: According to the BBC a bag carrying NZ$1m (US$665,000) has disappeared while being moved from a Cathay Pacific plane at Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). The bag was one of 13, holding a total of NZ$10m, being sent to the Bank of China in Hong Kong from New Zealand, Chinese media say. Police are treating the case as theft, they add. Let’s just be thankful it wasn’t Greece’s money!
That’s all for this week – safe travels!
[Photo by Muns (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons]
