Airports in Berlin
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Berlin, Germany currently has three airports:
- Tempelhof International Airport, the second-oldest operating commercial airport in the world, officially designated an airport in 1923, scheduled to close in 2008;
- Berlin-Schönefeld International Airport, founded in 1934, the airport for East Berlin during the Cold War;
- Berlin-Tegel International Airport, largest Airport, built during the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and scheduled to close in 2011.
As Tempelhof and Tegel will close in the near future, part of Schönefeld will be converted to the main airport for Berlin, Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport.
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[edit] Background
[edit] Early aviation
Tempelhof was the first airport in the world with regular passenger flights, opening in 1923 with flights to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). Lufthansa started its operations from the airport in 1926, while zeppelins also frequented the airport. The airport expanded rapidly, becoming one of the largest airports in the world in the 1930s, fittingly provided with enormous halls, which are still visible today, unfinished though they may be. Tempelhof also had another first: it was the first station to feature its own underground station.[1]
[edit] After 1945
Following World War II, Tempelhof was used as a U.S. Air Force base, while the Soviet air force relocated to Schönefeld during 1946. The Soviets had reached Tempelhof before the Western Allies, and the airport was actually exchanged at the Potsdam Conference for the small airfield at Staaken.[2]
In April 1948, as a result of growing tension between the Soviet and the Western Allied occupying powers, West Berlin was closed off from the surrounding Soviet sector. Supplies were flown in for over a year; enormous numbers of transport planes flew in and out of Berlin every day of this period. The capacity of the airports then in the three Western sectors was not large enough; to relieve pressure on Gatow and Tempelhof, Tegel Airport was built in the French sector. It was constructed by a labour force mainly consisting of Berlin women, under the supervision of French engineers, within just 90 days. It featured a 2400 m runway - the longest in Europe at the time. Because of special Allied bylaws, Lufthansa was not allowed to use Tegel until after German reunification.
Tempelhof was returned to civil administration in 1951, Schönefeld in 1954 and Tegel in 1960. Gatow Airport remained a military airfield, used by the RAF until 1994 and closed in 1995. Tegel, the newest airport, became the main civilian airport for West Berlin, while Schönefeld served the population of East Berlin. Since the smaller airport at Tempelhof is surrounded by urban development, it could not expand.
[edit] Change to one airport
1. Old northern runway (closed December 2007)
2. Old southern runway, future northern runway
3. New southern runway
4. New terminal building
9. Old terminal building
Following German reunification in 1990, the efficiency of operating three separate airports became increasingly problematic, leading the Berlin City Council to propose a single airport for the whole of Berlin. One airport would be more efficient and would decrease the noise pollution especially from the two centrally located airports within the city. Furthermore, the cumulative capacity of Berlin's current three airports was 18 million passengers (late 2006), an amount that would probably be needed only after 2010, according to current prognoses. A single new airport would increase capacity to at least 25 million passengers initially, which could be expanded to 30 million before 2030.
Berlin-Brandenburg International was chosen to replace the three airports currently serving Berlin. The existing airport in Schönefeld will be greatly expanded to the south from its current state to allow this. In fact, the new airport will only have the current southern runway (the new designated northern runway) in common with the existing airport. Due to noise abaitment regulations flights between midnight and 5 am will remain banned.
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 over 20 million passengers in 2007.
