CHRONOLOGY Every opening date Berlin Brandenburg Airport has missed so far

Berlin (dpa) - The construction of Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER) has a long history, riddled with set-backs. Planning mistakes, technological errors and construction faults have delayed BER‘s opening many times over. Here are the deadlines missed to date: January 1992: Planning for the airport begins.September 2006: First groundbreaking ceremony. October 30, 2011, is named as the opening date.June 2010: Due to factors including the bankruptcy of the planning company, the opening is pushed back to June 3, 2012.May 2012: The grand opening is cancelled with four weeks to go due to problems with the fire safety system. A few days later, March 17, 2013, is named as the new start date for the beginning of operations.September 2012: An analysis carried out by technical coordinator Horst Amann finds multiple faults in the fire safety system. The management board delay the opening again until October 27, 2013.January 2013: The October 27 deadline also falls through. Amann produces a list of tens of thousands of construction faults. The opening is put on hold indefinitely.December 2014: On the recommendation of airport head Hartmut Mehdorn, the management board sets a time plan with the aim of an opening in the the second half of 2017. Construction work on the multi-billion project is supposed finish in March 2016.August 2015: New airport head Karsten Muehlenfeld admits construction will not be finished by March 2016 because of the insolvency of the German branch of the firm Imtech, who are responsible for the project‘s facility management.March 2016: German construction authorities say that the airport must make improvements to several aspects of the documents needed for approval. They say further renovation works may be required.January 2017: Muehlenfeld pushes back the opening to2018. The construction work continues to be dogged by issues including non-functional doors and sprinklers that only dribble water.August 2017: The new airport head Engelbert Luetke Daldrup wants to finish building works by August 31, 2018. As such, an opening before 2019 is ruled out. Tests, official approval and trial runs are expected to require around another year.