BERLIN - The opening of Berlin's problem-plagued new airport has been put off until October 2013 — a seven-month postponement and the second delay this year.

Airport planning chief Horst Amann said Friday that the Willy Brandt airport, located just outside the city limits, will open on Oct. 27, 2013, rather than March 17 as previously planned.

It will replace the small and aging Tegel and Schoenefeld airports, which served West and East Berlin respectively during Germany's Cold War division. But construction has run into technical and planning problems, and the project has become a growing embarrassment to local politicians.

Previous plans to open the airport on June 3 this year were scrapped with just a few weeks to go.