After the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany in 1990, the German government planned to create a single new commercial airport to serve the capital city, the state of Brandenburg, and some six million residents. Development greatly overran time and cost estimates after an extensive political battle, a failed privatization effort, accusations of corruption, and land use disputes. Originally budgeted at 2.8 billion Euros, the ultimate cost rose to over 10 billion Euros. Largely abandoned from its targeted opening in 2011 to 2019, a ghost train ran daily from the facility to Berlin with no passengers. Over 500,000 construction errors, including some 170,000km of incorrect wiring and a non-functioning fire suppression and ventilation system, led to massive rework. Operations finally began in 2020, some 14 years after construction began and some 29 years in planning. But does it really take 29 years to build a new airport?