Berlin's new airport? It now won't open until late 2017

Remember that brand new Berlin airport that was supposed to open in 2011? It's still not open and now doesn't appear likely to begin accepting passenger flights until the second half of 2017, German officials announced Friday.
The airport has had four postponed opening dates, one of which came only weeks before the airport had expected to host its first passenger flight. German news network Deutsche Welle writes: "Originally, the project was to be finished in 2011, but it was held up by serious planning mistakes and faulty construction, including a fire protection system that didn't work."
Now, the ongoing problems in getting airport up and running have become a "national embarrassment" for Germany, a country that prides itself on its efficiency. As Deutsche Welle says in its report on the subject, the repeated delays have made Berlin's airport planners "the butt of many jokes, and not a little resentment, for putting Germany's reputation for engineering prowess at risk."
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As for the new projected opening date — still more than two years away — airport officials sounded an optimistic note.
"We are determined to complete the project. We want the airport to fly," Hartmut Mehdorn, then-CEO of the airport company, said Friday as the airport revealed its latest projected opening date for 2017.
And, yes, that's "then-CEO" for Mehdorn, who surprisingly stepped down from that role on Monday. He pledged to stay on until a successor is found or until June 30. Still, the move is the latest in a long string of setbacks for the German capital's long-anticipated new airport. The airport, officially dubbed the Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER), is to replace Berlin's two smaller airports, Tegel and Schoenefeld.
In resigning, Mehdorn offered a somewhat cryptic explanation that "speculations about his person" that exceeded "tolerable levels," according to Deutsche Welle.

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Few other details were given for his decision, though Deutsche Welle reports "observers have repeatedly spoken of major differences with the board over the timing of the airport's opening and its size." The news network adds the airport board reportedly balked at Mehdorn's plan to make the new airport bigger. Mehdorn apparently was concerned that the new facility would become too small to handle Berlin's increasing air traffic.
Regardless of the reason, Mehdorn's resignation caught German officials off guard.
"I'm very surprised by this step," Frank Henkel, the Berlin senator for internal affairs and member of the airport company's supervisory board, says to The Wall Street Journal. "Everyone was aligned last Friday that progress in the construction was most important, not personal issues."
Stay tuned …