The trial will involve 9,000 volunteers, rather than 20,000 as originally planned. Those who had signed up to test the long-awaited BER airport in the German capital will be informed of the change by email, according to a statement.

A new registration process for the scaled-down event will be made available soon, it added.

“Safety and health take the highest priority,” airport operator chief executive Engelbert Luetke Daldrup said, noting that the decision had been taken in light of social-distancing rules in place to curb novel coronavirus infections.

He insisted that the revised trial plan still gives plenty of time for the airport to open on October 31, as planned.

The coronavirus pandemic is only the latest hurdle in a long list of hiccups and scandals that have beset the capital’s new airport, which was originally set to open back in 2011, before becoming a national punchline for planning errors and technical problems.

The test runs ahead of this year’s opening date had been set to start from late June. A spokesperson for the airport said this timeline would now be pushed back by six weeks.

Extras are expected to test the entire airport experience, from check-in to airport security to the gate area.

The only legally mandated test prior to the opening, however, is a trial evacuation of the airport’s underground train station.