A、Tourism industry in Berlin suffers. B、All kinds of equipment gets rusted. C、Huge maintenance costs accumulate. D、Complaints by

Today I’m going to talk about Germany’s dream airport in Berlin. The airport looks exactly like every other major modern airport in Europe, except for one big problem: more than seven years after it was originally supposed to open, it still stands empty.
   Germany is known for its efficiency and refined engineering, but when it comes to its new ghost airport this reputation could not be further from the truth. Plagued by long delays, perpetual mismanagement and ever-soaring costs, the airport has become something of a joke among Germans— and a source of frustration for local politicians, business leaders and residents alike.
   Planning for the new airport began in 1989. At the time, it became clear that the newly-reunified Berlin would need a modern airport with far greater capacity than its existing airports. The city broke ground on the new airport in 2006.
   The first major sign of problems came in summer 2010, when the construction corporation pushed the opening from October 2011 to June 2012. In 2012, the city planned an opening ceremony. But less than a month beforehand, inspectors found significant problems with the fire safety system and pushed the opening back again to 2013. It wasn’t just the smoke system: many other major problems subsequently emerged. More than 90 metres of cable were incorrectly installed; 4,000 doors were wrongly numbered; escalators were too short. And there was a shortage of check-in desks.
   So why, with so many problems discovered, didn’t the airport corporation decide to give up on the project and start over? The reason is simple: people are often hesitant to terminate a project when they’ve already invested time or resources into it, even if it might make logical sense to do so.
   The longer the delays continued, the more problems inspectors found. Leadership of the planning corporation has changed hands nearly as many times as the opening date has been pushed back. Initially, rather than appointing a general contractor to run the project, the corporation decided to manage it themselves despite lack of experience with an undertaking of that scale.
   To compound the delays, the unused airport is resulting in massive costs. Every month it remains unopened costs between €9m and €10m.
   Assuming all goes well, the airport should open in October 2020. But the still-empty airport stands as the biggest embarrassment to Germany’s reputation for efficiency— and a continuing drain on city and state resources.
Questions 22 to 25 are based on the recording you have just heard.
22. What does the speaker say about the dream airport in Berlin?
23. Why was there a need for a new airport in Berlin?
24. Why did Berlin postpone the opening of its dream airport again and again?
25. What happens while the airport remains unused?