Employment impacts of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport "Willy Brandt"

Abstract

"The construction of a new single airport for the capital of Germany has an erratic history that dates back to the early nineties. After several postponements in putting the airport into operation, its opening is now projected for the course of the year 2018. During the long planning period the employment impacts of a major airport played an important role in the public dialogue. This paper sets out how a scenario technique was used to calculate employment effects related to this major airport project.<br> The first assessment approach was utilized to examine alternative sites for the new single airport in the early planning stage. It found that the location of Schönefeld, the site which was finally chosen, would generate the highest effects on employment among the three alternative proposals of suitable sites. The reasons were its short distance to the metropolis of Berlin and its greatest stimulating effects on economic growth in the surrounding area. The second assessment approach was performed three years before in 2008, prior to the expected opening date of the airport. The mission was to identify industries, occupations and regions in Berlin and Brandenburg that would benefit from air transport services to start further education. In contrast to the usual quantification framework of magnitudes the assessment concentrated on structural changes in employment. The procedure is based on the employment statistics that contains 336 occupations and which is able to map the regional development of air transport related employment in 402 German districts. The employment figures are differentiated according to jobs that are directly located at the airport site, indirect employment effects in the aerospace industry and in related sectors and catalytic effects on the economy as a whole.<br> The results give evidence for direct and indirect employment effects outside the airport site in Berlin, and for regional effects in the southern districts of Berlin, notably in the counties of Dahme-Spreewald, Teltow-Fläming and Potsdam. It was predicted that aircraft-related industries located in the administrative district of Dahme-Spreewald stimulate the job creation in technical occupations in Brandenburg. The most difficult forecast is related to occupations that benefit from better airport infrastructure via catalytic effects. Those impacts especially were found for service occupations with university degrees such as consultants and managers which are located in Berlin and in the metropolitan areas in Brandenburg." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Bogai, D. & Hirschenauer, F. (2017): Employment impacts of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport "Willy Brandt". The application of scenario techniques during the planning process. In: D. Lawrence (Hrsg.) (2017): Aviation and airport security : Management, improvement strategies and future challenges, p. 29-58.