Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport
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Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport (Flughafen Berlin-Brandenburg International) is the tentative new name of Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport (Flughafen Berlin-Schönefeld) in Schönefeld, Germany, near Berlin, scheduled for completion in 2011. After a 10-year administrative court battle, on 16 March 2006 the federal administrative court in Leipzig gave the go-ahead for the project by ruling in favour of Berlin against challenges by residents and municipalities near the future airport. Schönefeld is located in Brandenburg, the Bundesland (federal state) surrounding Berlin; the name reflects that the airport will serve both.
Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI) will replace the three airports currently serving Berlin. Schönefeld will be greatly expanded from its current state to allow this, although flights between midnight and 5 am will remain banned. Tegel Airport is tentatively scheduled to close in 2007. Tempelhof Airport was originally scheduled to close on 31 October 2004, but after reevaluation, this decision was subsequently postponed until possibly 2011.
Following World War II, Tempelhof was used as a U.S. Air Force base, while the Soviet air force relocated to Schönefeld during 1946. Templehof was returned to civil administration in 1951, Schönefeld in 1954 and Tegel in 1960. Tegel and Schönefeld served the civilian populations of West Berlin and East Berlin, respectively. The smaller airport at Tempelhof is surrounded by urban development and could not expand. Following German reunification in 1990, the efficacy of operating three separate airports became increasingly prohibitive, leading the Berlin City Council to pursue a single airport that would be more efficient and would decrease the noise pollution especially from the two centrally located airports within the city. In addition, the cumulative capacity of Berlin's three airports was 15.5 million in late 2003, a measure that would only be needed after 2010, according to current prognoses. A single new airport would increase the capacity to at least 20 million initially, which would be expanded to 30 million before 2030. This would enable Berlin to accommodate a number of flights similar in magnitude to that of airports serving other European capitals, like London's Heathrow or Paris' Charles De Gaulle.
Nonetheless, Frankfurt is the undisputed financial capital of Germany, and is served by Germany's busiest airport. Frankfurt International Airport served 52.2 million passengers in 2005. Munich International Airport is the country's second busiest airport, serving 28.5 million passengers in 2005. Berlin hopes to foster its claim as number three, after having served 17.2 million passengers in 2005 (a 15.3% increase on 2004).
