Unresolved

When President Aquino goes to Germany in his second visit to Europe this week, he will be entering through the government-run airport in Berlin rather than Frankfurt International.

This should be good for P-Noy, since Frankfurt Airport is run by German giant Fraport AG. The company is still waiting for the resolution of the arbitration case it filed against the Philippine government over the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH operates Berlin’s Tegel and Schonefeld airports, and will run their replacement Berlin Brandenburg International once it opens. The company is owned by the German states of Berlin and Brandenburg (37% each) and the rest by the federal government.

P-Noy is likely to enter Berlin through Tegel, where he may find some comfort in seeing that the main airport in the capital of high-tech, prosperous Germany looks no better than the NAIA Terminal 1.

Germans, used to efficiency, roll up their eyes when asked when the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport will open (best projection: in three years). The delays have been attributed to faulty planning, bad management, poor execution of construction plans and yes, even corruption.

But before P-Noy finds in Berlin’s airport woes enough excuses to hold on to his loyal but inefficient NAIA general manager Bodet Honrado all the way to (they hope) six more years, it must be pointed out that Tegel has never been reunited Germany’s busiest or biggest airport.

That honor goes to Fraport-run Frankfurt International in the former West Germany, followed by Munich International and then Dusseldorf. Frankfurt, German carrier Lufthansa’s hub, is Europe’s third busiest in terms of passenger traffic after London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle (where P-Noy landed over the weekend), and is the 12th busiest in the world, handling 58 million passengers last year. (NAIA handled 32.865 million in 2013.) Frankfurt is Europe’s busiest airport in terms of cargo traffic.

In Berlin Brandenburg, the Germans are building not just a single terminal but an entire airport with several terminals and two runways. It has an underground railway system connecting the airport not only to several German cities but also to the Polish capital Warsaw, Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Prague in the Czech Republic.

Construction kicked off in 2006, after about 15 years of tossing around proposals and drawing up blueprints. A 32-meter-tall observation tower with a museum and gift shop has been opened to the public. There are also guided tours of the airport.

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Going to Berlin two weeks ago I took a KLM flight from NAIA Terminal 3. Three other foreign carriers now use the terminal: Delta Airlines, Emirates and Singapore Airlines. Cathay Pacific is also set to transfer.

NAIA 3 is still small compared to those in several other Asian countries. But it looks like a 21st century airport and is certainly better than NAIA 1 and 2. It even has a travelator or moving walkway – although when I returned to Manila the other Sunday, only one was working.

At the immigration area, colonial mentality seemed to be at work: there was only one booth for arriving Philippine passport holders but about four or five for foreigners including the special lane for diplomats. Since I flew in from the port city of Hamburg, my flight was packed with Pinoy seamen, with more boarding at Amsterdam’s Schiphol International from several points in Europe. So there was a long line at the immigration arrival station.

Fortunately, another booth was opened for arriving Filipino citizens. From the conversation I overheard, the immigration guy decided on his own to start his duty earlier after seeing the long line of passengers. But another immigration guy shrugged and walk away, probably for his evening meal – it was past 8 p.m. and our KLM flight was two hours delayed.

That’s right – two hours. We were told at Schiphol that the delay was due to mechanical problems on the plane. Amsterdam’s airport, one of the world’s best, is a good place to be stuck on a delayed flight, but those two hours added to the exhaustion of the grueling trip.

Because of the lack of direct flights to Germany, going to that country from Manila can take up to a day, including stopovers. The quickest way is through one stopover in the Middle East.

In the case of KLM, which ended its direct flights between Manila and Schiphol about a year ago, we are now at the tailend of its eastward flights to Asia. From Manila, the flight stops over in Taiwan to pick up more passengers before heading to Amsterdam, where a three-hour layover is common.

My first flight to Germany many moons ago was a direct one, to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. But the German carrier was among the first foreign airlines to end direct flights to the Philippines. Other European carriers followed suit, not just because of diminishing passenger traffic but also because of fees imposed by our government that the airlines considered unique to the Philippines and discriminatory to foreign carriers operating long-haul flights.

Lufthansa Technik has a center for maintenance and overhaul of Airbus planes including the world’s largest, the A380, at Villamor Air Base, employing about 3,000 people. But so far Lufthansa does not seem to have plans of resuming direct flights to Manila. This may have to wait until the Fraport issue is settled.

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P-Noy will be in Berlin at the end of the week to mark the 60th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. Germans like the story of the Philippines’ people power, and P-Noy’s anti-corruption campaign still resonates in Europe.

During his visit, Berlin will give formal recognition to the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. Bodo Goerlich, president of the chamber and country head of German energy giant STEAG State Power Inc., is in Berlin for the occasion.

The formal recognition can help attract more German investments here. Germany wants to strengthen ties with the Philippines in various aspects, but German officials emphasize that the Fraport issue must be resolved.

The dispute is spooking investors particularly because it is taking an eternity to reach a settlement. Even corporate giants can’t afford having substantial investments stuck in the mire of indefinite uncertainty.

Resolving the dispute will send a positive signal not just to Germans but also to other European investors that their money will be safe in the Philippines.