Berlin-Tegel International Airport

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Berlin-Tegel International Airport
Flughafen Berlin-Tegel
Berlin International Airport in Tegel

IATA: TXL – ICAO: EDDT
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator Berlin Airports
Serves Berlin, Germany
Location Tegel
Elevation AMSL 122 ft / 37 m
Coordinates 52°33′35″N 013°17′16″E / 52.55972, 13.28778
Website www.berlin-airport.de
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
08L/26R 3,023 9,918 Asphalt
08R/26L 2,428 7,966 Asphalt
Source: German AIP at EUROCONTROL

Berlin-Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" (IATA: TXL, ICAO: EDDT) (officially known as Berlin International Airport, but often shortened to Tegel) is the main international airport in Berlin, Germany. It lies in Tegel, a section of the northern borough of Reinickendorf. Tegel Airport is notable for its hexagonal terminal building around an open square, which makes for walking distances as short as 30 metres from the aircraft to the terminal exit. Tegel is referred to as the "Frequent Flyer Airport" and has the most scheduled flights of the three airports serving Berlin. In 2007, the airport served over 13,350,000 passengers. The airport is scheduled to close in 2012, six months after the completion of the new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport and slated to handle all commercial flights from and to Berlin. Tegel is the main base of Air Berlin. thenceforth.[2]

Main building
Main building

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Cold War era

During the Berlin Airlift in 1948 what was then the longest runway in Europe (2,428 m) was built at Tegel.

West Berlin's special political status during the Cold War era (8 May 1945 - 2 October 1990) meant that all air traffic to and from the Western half of Germany's divided former and present capital was restricted to the airlines of the three Western victorious powers of World War II, i.e. only those headquartered in the US, UK and France. In addition, all flightdeck crew, i.e. pilots, flight engineers and navigators, flying aircraft into and out of West Berlin through the Allied air corridors were required to hold American, British or French passports.[1]

Air France was the first airline to commence regular commercial operations at Tegel on 2 January 1960. The airline decided to transfer its operations from Tempelhof Airport to Tegel because the former airport's runways were too short to handle first generation jet aircraft such as the Aérospatiale Caravelle, Boeing 707, De Havilland Comet and Douglas DC-8 without payload or range restrictions.[2]

Pan Am became the second airline to commence year-round, scheduled operations at Tegel Airport when it launched a thrice-weekly service from New York JFK in May 1964.[3] This service was operated with Boeing 707s or Douglas DC-8s which could not operate from Tempelhof, the airline's West Berlin base at the time, with a viable payload. The service routed either through Glasgow Prestwick in Scotland or Shannon, Ireland. It ceased in October 1971.[4]

From April 1968 onwards all non-scheduled services, i.e. primarily the rapidly growing number of inclusive tour (IT) charter flights that several wholly privately owned, Independent UK airlines as well as a number of US supplemental carriers had operated from Tempelhof since the early 1960s under contract to West Berlin's leading package tour operators, were concentrated at Tegel to alleviate increasing congestion at the former airport and to make better use of the latter. (At the time Tegel was underutilised.)[5] A new passenger handling facility exclusively dedicated to charter airline passengers was opened to accommodate the additional traffic.[5] Both this facility (a wooden shed) and the original terminal used by Air France's and Pan Am's scheduled passengers (a pre-fabricated shed) were located at the airport's north side.[5] Following the transfer of all charter traffic to Tegel, Channel Airways, Dan-Air Services, Laker Airways and Modern Air Transport began stationing several of their aircraft at the airport.[5] Channel Airways' collapse in early 1972 provided the impetus for Dan-Air to take over the failed carrier's charter contracts and to expand its own operations at Tegel.[6] (Dan-Air, one of Britain's foremost wholly privately owned, Independent airlines during the 1970s and '80s, eventually became the third-biggest operator at Tegel Airport, ahead of Air France. In addition to firmly establishing itself as the airport's and West Berlin's leading charter airline, it also operated scheduled services linking Tegel with Amsterdam Schiphol, Saarbrücken and London Gatwick, its main operational base. By the time that airline was taken over by British Airways at the end of October 1992, it had served Tegel Airport for a quarter of a century.[7][8]) Modern Air's departure in October 1974 coincided with Aeroamerica's arrival.[9] That carrier's departure following the end of the 1979 summer season was followed by Air Berlin USA's arrival.[10] Laker Airways' decision to replace its Tegel-based BAC One-Eleven fleet with one of its newly acquired Airbus A300 B4 widebodies from the start of the 1981 summer season resulted in Monarch Airlines taking over that airline's long-standing charter contract with Flug Union Berlin, at the time West Berlin's second-largest tour operator (after Berliner Flug Ring).[11][12] (Several years later, Monarch Airlines provided the aircraft as well as the flightdeck crew and maintenance support for EuroBerlin France, a Tegel-based scheduled airline headquartered in Paris, France. EuroBerlin was jointly owned by Air France and Lufthansa, with the former holding a 51% majority stake, thereby making it a French legal entity and enabling it to conduct commercial airline operations at West Berlin.[13])

Other airlines operating regular services to/from Tegel Airport during the Cold War era included:

In addition to the aforementioned airlines, a host of others - mainly British Independents and US supplementals - were frequent visitors to Berlin Tegel, especially during the early 1970s. These included Britannia Airways, British Airtours, British United, Caledonian, Caledonian/BUA / British Caledonian, Capitol International Airways, Overseas National Airways, Saturn Airways, Trans International Airlines, Transamerica Airlines and World Airways. Furthermore, during the early '70s both Pan Am and TWA used to operate regular "Advanced Booking Charter (ABC)" flights from Tegel to the USA as well. During that period the airport scene at Berlin Tegel could be very colourful, with Air France Caravelles, the UK Independents' BAC One-Elevens, De Havilland Comets and Hawker Siddeley Tridents as well as the US supplementals' Boeing 707s, Convair "Coronados" and Douglas DC-8s congregating on its ramp. During 1974 alone 22 airlines were operating at Tegel Airport.[22]

The airport's current main, hexagonally shaped terminal building, which is located at the airport's south side, became operational on 1 November 1974. A British Airways Lockheed L-1011 "Tristar" 1, a Laker Airways McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10, a Pan Am Boeing 747-100 and an Air France Airbus A300 B2 were among the widebodied aircraft specially flown in on that day for the inauguration of the new terminal building.[22] Dan-Air operated the first commercial flight to arrive at the airport's new terminal at 06.00 a.m. local time with a BAC One-Eleven that was in-bound from Tenerife.[22]

Following Pan Am's and British Airways' move from Tempelhof to Tegel on 1 September 1975, the latter replaced Tempelhof as the main airport of West Berlin.[23]

[edit] Post-reunification era

Following Germany's reunification on October 3, 1990, all access restrictions to the former West Berlin airports were lifted.

Lufthansa resumed flights to Berlin on October 28, 1990, initially operating twelve daily pairs of flights on a limited number of routes, including Tegel-Cologne, Tegel-Frankfurt and Tegel-London Gatwick.[24] To facilitate the German flag carrier's resumption of services from/to Berlin, it purchased Pan Am's Internal German Services (IGS) division for US$150m. This included Pan Am's internal German traffic rights as well as its gates and slots at Tegel. This agreement, under which Lufthansa contracted up to seven of Pan Am's Tegel-based Boeing 727-200 "Advs" operated by that airline's flightdeck and cabin crews to ply its scheduled routes to Munich, Nuremberg and Stuttgart until mid-1991, also facilitated Pan Am's orderly exit from the internal German air transport market after 40 years' uninterrupted service as EU legislation prevented it from participating in the EU/EEA's internal air transport market as a non-EU/EEA headquartered carrier.[24] However, Pan Am continued operating its daily non-stop Tegel-JFK service until Delta Air Lines assumed most of Pan Am's transatlantic scheduled services during 1991. Pan Am Express, which was not included in Pan Am's IGS sale to Lufthansa, continued operating all of its domestic and international regional scheduled routes from Tegel as an independent legal entity until its acquisition by TWA in 1991. Following TWA's takeover of Pan Am Express, the former Pan Am Express Berlin operations were closed. Until December 1994, Lufthansa also contracted EuroBerlin to operate some of its internal German flights from its new Tegel base, making use of that airline's gates and slots at Tegel as well.

As a US-registered airline Air Berlin found itself in the same situation as Pan Am following German reunification. It chose to reconstitute itself as a German company.

These were the days when liberalisation of the EU/EEA internal air transport market was still in progress and when domestic traffic rights were still reserved for each member country's own airlines. The German government therefore insisted that all non-German EU/EEA carriers either withdraw their internal German scheduled services from Berlin or transfer them to majority German-owned subsidiaries by the end of 1992.[25] It also wanted the bulk of all charter flights from Berlin to be operated by German airlines. These measures were squarely aimed at UK carriers with a major presence in the internal German air transport market from Berlin as well as the city's charter market, specifically British Airways and Dan-Air. Lufthansa and other German airlines reportedly lobbied their government to curtail BA's and Dan-Air's activities in Berlin, arguing that German airlines enjoyed no equivalent rights in the UK at the time.[25] This resulted in BA taking a 49% stake in Friedrichshafen-based German regional airline Delta Air, renaming it Deutsche BA and transferring its internal German traffic rights to the new airline. BA also replaced the commuter aircraft Deutsche BA had inherited from Delta Air with new Boeing 737-300s. These in turn replaced the Boeing 737-200 "Advs" and BAe ATP airliners BA had used on its internal German scheduled services from Berlin.[25] At the time of German reunification Dan-Air had five aircraft permanently stationed at Berlin Tegel, comprising three Boeing 737s (one -400, one -300 and one -200 "Adv") and two HS 748s.[26] The former were used to fly Berlin-based holidaymakers to overseas holiday destinations on IT flights under contract to German package tour operators. The latter operated the airline's scheduled routes from Tegel to Amsterdam and Saarbrücken. Dan-Air discontinued its charter operations from Berlin on behalf of German tour operators at the end of the 1990/'91 winter season and replaced the aging 748 turboprop it had used on its Amsterdam schedule since the mid-1980s with larger, more advanced BAe 146 100 series jet equipment. It also introduced new direct scheduled air links from Berlin to Manchester and Newcastle via Amsterdam.[26][27][28] The Saarbrücken route was withdrawn at the end of the 1991 summer season, while the Amsterdam route was gradually taken over by NLM Cityhopper, the contemporary regional arm of Dutch flag carrier KLM.[29][30] This reduced Dan-Air's presence in Berlin to a single daily scheduled service as well as up to four weekly charter flights linking the airline's Gatwick base with its former overseas base at Tegel, which were operated by Gatwick-based aircraft and crews until the firm's takeover by BA at the end of October 1992.[31][32] The restructuring of Dan-Air's long-established Berlin operation was not only the result of political changes. It was also driven by its own corporate restructuring, which aimed to refocus the airline as a Gatwick-based short-haul "mainline" scheduled operator and involved phasing out its smaller aircraft and thinner routes.[33]

Other airlines that commenced/resumed scheduled operations from Berlin Tegel at the beginning of the post-reunification era included Aero Lloyd, Alitalia, American Airlines, Swissair and TWA.[34][35]

Aero Lloyd, Germania and Condor Berlin began operating charter flights from Berlin Tegel during that period.[34]

[edit] Terminals

Tegel has 1 Terminal,divided into hall A, B, C and D. The main halls are A and B, where most of the airlines which use this airport are located.

Hall C is the Air Berlin terminal. Most of the Air Berlin flights start in this Terminal. C is temporary solution because all other terminals were full to capacity and they needed to build a new terminal. It was opened in the first quarter of 2007.

D is the smallest, main user is TUIfly.

[edit] Airlines and destinations

  • airBaltic (Riga, Vilnius)
  • airberlin
    • Domestic: Cologne/Bonn, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Munich, Münster/Osnabrück, Nuremberg, Saarbrücken, Stuttgart, Westerland/Sylt
    • International: Alicante, Antalya, Arvidjaur [seasonal], Arrecife, Barcelona, Bastia, Catania [seasonal], Constanta, Copenhagen, Corfu, Dalaman [seasonal], Djerba [seasonal], Faro, Fuerteventura, Funchal, Gothenburg-City, Helsinki, Heraklion, Hurghada, Ibiza, Jerez de la Forntera, Kaliningrad [starts october, 2008], Kalmar [seasonal], Kiev [starts october, 2008], Kittila [seasonal], Kos, Las Palmas, London-Stansted, Lamezia Terme, Luxor, Marsa Alam, Mahon, Málaga, Milan-Bergamo [ends 15 June 2008], Milan-Malpensa [Starts 16 June 2008], Mikonos, Minsk [starts october, 2008], Monastir, Moscow-Domodedovo, Naples, Paris-Orly [starts october, 2008], Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Riga [starts october, 2008], Rimini, Rome-Fiumicino, Samos [seasonal], Sharm El-Sheikh, Santa Cruz de la Palma, St. Petersburg, Stockholm-Arlanda, Tallin [starts october, 2008], Tenerife-South, Thessaloniki, Thira, Vienna, Vilnius [starts october 2008], Zürich
    • airberlin operated by LGW (Bremen, Dortmund, Westerland/Sylt)
Terminal layout
Terminal layout
Overview of Berlin's three airports
Overview of Berlin's three airports

[edit] Cargo airlines

[edit] Former Airlines and destinations

[edit] Accidents and incidents

There are no recorded accidents or incidents involving commercial airline operations at Berlin Tegel itself. However, two commercial flights, one of which was due to arrive at Tegel Airport and the other which had departed the airport, were involved in fatal accidents. These accidents are listed below:

  • On 15 November 1966 a Pan Am Boeing 727-21 (registration N317PA) operating the return leg of the airline's daily cargo flight from Berlin to Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport (flight number PA 708) was due to land that night at Tegel Airport, rather than Tempelhof, due to runway resurfacing work taking place at that time at the latter. Berlin Control had cleared flight 708 for an ILS approach to Tegel Airport's runway 08, soon after the crew had begun its descent from FL030 before entering the southwest air corridor over East Germany on the last stretch of its journey to Berlin. The aircraft impacted the ground near Dallgow, East Germany, almost immediately after the crew had acknowledged further instructions received from Berlin Control, just ten miles from Tegel Airport. All three crew members lost their lives in this accident. Visibility was poor, and it was snowing at the time of the accident. Following the accident, the Soviet military authorities in East Germany returned only half of the aircraft's wreckage to their US counterparts in West Berlin. This excluded vital parts, such as the FDR, the CVR as well as the plane's flight control systems, its navigation and communication equipment. The subsequent NTSB investigation report concluded that the aircraft's descent below its altitude clearance limit was the accident's probable cause. However, the NTSB was unable to establish the factors that had caused the crew to descend below its cleared minimum altitude.[3]
  • Between 1969 and 1982 Berlin Tegel was the destination of several hijackings involving aircraft operated by LOT Polish Airlines on domestic flights within Poland. These hijackings were carried out by Polish citizens dissatisfied with life behind the Iron Curtain. The hijackings themselves were a means of forcing the authorities in communist Poland to let the hijackers emigrate to the West. Once the aircraft had landed at Tegel, the French military authorities in charge of the airport during the Cold War era let the hijackers and anyone else who did not wish to return to Poland disembark and claim political asylum in West Berlin. The aircraft, its crew and those passengers who did not want to disembark were subsequently returned to Poland.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Berlin Airport Company, Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, various editions April 1968 - October 1990
  2. ^ Berlin Airport Company - Special Report on Air France's 25th Anniversary at Berlin Tegel, March 1985 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1985
  3. ^ Hot route in the Cold War, Friday, Jul. 03, 1964
  4. ^ Berlin Airport Company, June 1964 and October 1971 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1964 and 1971
  5. ^ a b c d Berlin Airport Company, April and August 1968 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1968
  6. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1972 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1972
  7. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1981, January 1984, April 1990 and November 1992 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1981, 1984, 1990, 1992
  8. ^ Kompass - various editions, Dan Air Services Ltd., West Berlin, 1976-1986
  9. ^ Berlin Airport Company, October 1974 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1974
  10. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1980 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1980
  11. ^ New operators for Boeing 737, Flight International, 18 October 1980, p. 1493
  12. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1981 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1981
  13. ^ Berlin Airport Company, October 1987 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1987
  14. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1974 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1974
  15. ^ Berlin Airport Company, November 1978 and January 1984 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1978 and 1984
  16. ^ Berlin Regional service to start, Flight International, 14 June 1986, p. 6
  17. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1987 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1987
  18. ^ a b Berlin's commuter market grows, Flight International, 2 April 1988, pp. 6, 8
  19. ^ Berlin Airport Company, July 1987 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1987
  20. ^ The battle for Berlin, Flight International, 23 April 1988, pp. 19-21
  21. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April 1989 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1989
  22. ^ a b c Berlin Airport Company - Summary of 1974 Annual Report, February 1975 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1975
  23. ^ Berlin Airport Company, September and October 1975 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1975
  24. ^ a b Berlin Return boosts Lufthansa’s bid for Interflug, Operations: Air Transport, Flight International, 7-13 November 1990, p. 10
  25. ^ a b c BA stays in Germany by buying into Delta Air, Headlines, Flight International, 25-31 March 1992, p. 4
  26. ^ a b Chairman's progress report on implementation of Dan-Air's scheduled service strategy, James, D.N., 1991 EGM, Gatwick Hilton Hotel, October 1991
  27. ^ Dan-Air 1990/'91 Winter Timetable, Dan Air Services Ltd., October 1990
  28. ^ Berlin Airport Company, November 1990 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, Berlin, 1990
  29. ^ Dan-Air 1991/'92 Winter Timetable, Dan Air Services Ltd., October 1991
  30. ^ Berlin Airport Company, October 1991 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, Berlin, 1991
  31. ^ Dan-Air 1992 Summer Timetable, Dan Air Services Ltd., March 1992[1]
  32. ^ Berlin Airport Company, April and October 1992 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, Berlin, 1992
  33. ^ Scheduled Transition, Flight International, 6-12 June 1990, p. 34
  34. ^ a b Berlin Airport Company, October 1990 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1990
  35. ^ Berlin Airport Company, March 1991 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, Berlin, 1991

[edit] References

  • Berlin Airport Company (Berliner Flughafen Gesellschaft [BFG]) - Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, several issues (German language edition only), 1964-1992. Berlin Airport Company. 
  • "Flight International" . Reed Business Information. ISSN 0015-3710.  (various backdated issues relating to commercial air transport at Berlin Tegel during the Allied period from January 2, 1960 until October 2, 1990)
  • "OAG Flight Guide Worldwide" . OAG Worldwide Ltd. ISSN 1466-8718.  (October 1990 until December 1994)
  • In Flight - Dan-Air's English language in-flight magazine (Special Silver Jubilee Edition), 1978. Dan Air Services Ltd. 
  • Kompass - Dan-Air's German language in-flight magazine, various copies 1975-1990. Dan Air Services Ltd. 
  • Eglin, Roger, and Ritchie, Berry (1980). Fly me, I'm Freddie. Weidenfeld and Nicolson. ISBN 0-2977-7746-7. 

[edit] External links