Might tell Berlin that :-)
It may be true in general if there's undeveloped space within an hour or so drive of a major city center but major airport construction, at least in Western countries, usually hasn't gone smoothly.
I remember DIA (Denver) being built relatively quickly and without trouble - is my memory faulty ?
(genuinely curious)
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/1994/05/03/us/denver-delays-opening-o...
The IATA code for Denver International Airport is DEN. I originally heard it by DIA and was confused many years ago, so I looked it up. Not a huge deal as most airline folks know both versions, but wanted to share the knowledge in case it was useful.
Edit: Yep - https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/broadway_17th/2015/0...
Tegel is horrible but it’s also really quick - you can and I have arrived 30mins before a flight and make it just fine.
Oh BER looks like the rarest of things, a German construction disaster! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport
http://madridjournals.com/2017/12/14/berlins-money-guzzling-...
And how do you expect to move people from that empty space into Berlin? People aren't happy to be flown 50 miles outside the city. When that happens, all those flights coming and going into that enpty space end up addin an extra couple of hours to the travel time.
To make matters worse, that empty space tends to be connected with city centers by.... Train.
Manchester t3 isn't too bad - I've left a taxi with 15 minutes before take off on a couple of occasions with no problems.
