Berlin Tegel closed on 8 November 2020. The last flight was an Air France Airbus A320-200 bound for Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
All air traffic in the German capital region will now take place solely at BER.
Initially, Tegel Airport will remain operational for another six months, until 5 May 2021. During this period, however, no more flights will take place in Tegel.
At the end of the six-month period, the former airport site will start to be redeveloped into a new urban district.
The site will become one of Berlin’s key innovation hotspots, creating up to 20,000 jobs, with areas for industry, trade, fairs and congresses as well as for science and research.
An airport with a long history
The history of aviation in Tegel goes back a long way: initial airship trials were carried out there as early as 1896. In the course of the Berlin Blockade, the airport located in the former French occupation zone was expanded at record speed in 1948 to support the US Airlift. At 2,428 metres, the newly built runway was the longest in Europe at the time.
Until 1990, only airlines of the occupying powers USA, Great Britain and France were allowed to land in Tegel in accordance with the provisions of the Four-Power Agreement on Berlin. A total of approximately 6.5 million take-offs and landings took place between 1948 and 2020.
The landmark hexagonal airport building, later known as Terminal A, was opened in 1974 with an initial capacity of around 6 million passengers. Terminal C was added in 2007.
From the 2000s onwards in particular, Tegel Airport recorded steadily growing passenger numbers, with around 24.24 million passengers handled in 2019. In June 2019, daily passenger numbers peaked at over 90,000. Only a few months later, in April 2020, the global air traffic crisis saw this figure temporarily drop to as few as 250 passengers per day.
N.B. Image credit: Berlin Brandenberg Airport
