Berlin’s Brandenberg Airport (BER) takes arrivals, but. . .

For three hours last night the new Berlin-Brandenberg (BER) airport was in service. Almost.

The airport accepted diverted aircraft destined for Berlin’s Tegel Airport (TXL) that were forced to alternate airports during a 3-hour closure of the field. That closure was caused by discovery and disposal of a World War II bomb.

Flying in or out of Berlin-TXL tonight? WWII says you're not."CLSD DUE TO BOMB DISPOSAL." #AvGeek #PaxEx pic.twitter.com/KzNt1eKaKG

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) August 29, 2017

Schönefeld Airport (SXF) sits on the other side of Berlin from Tegel and was able to accept more than 20 inbound aircraft originally destined for the city’s primary airport. Alas, SXF lacked parking space and services to handle that volume of planes quickly, according to reports. That meant some aircraft parked on the far side of the field, in front of the Brandenberg Terminal. No services, no stairs, no buses, no anything to help them out.

Keine Treppe, keinen Bus, und 30 volle Flugzeuge. Flughafen tweet "Bald können auch die letzten Passagiere das Flugzeug verlassen." Quatsch!

— Jan Middendorp (@JanMiddendorp) August 29, 2017

Eventually the bomb removal work completed and the planes departed, making the quick hop from SXF to TXL.

As for Brandenberg Airport, still no idea when it will really enter service. It was originally scheduled to open in 2010 but a series of ridiculous developments, mostly around the fire suppression systems, keep it shuttered. Billions and billions of euros spent, and no operations.

For those wondering how WWII era bombs are still showing up some 75+ years later, well, they are. A few interesting stories on the process of discovery and disarmament:

• There Are Still Thousands of Tons of Unexploded Bombs in Germany, Left Over From World War II
• Germany Keeps Finding World War II-Era Bombs
• Hannover evacuates 50,000 over World War Two bombs