The consolidation of all air traffic on a single hub will take effect on 8 November at the airport of Berlin Brandenburg International (BBI)the German capital's new air hub.
It took twelve years to inaugurate BBI. Corruption scandals and construction errors undermined the airport's development. Between 2011 and 2018, its inauguration was postponed every year. This delay ultimately cost the taxpayer six billion euros - ten times more than the initial budget!
But it's finally done. The new hub is located where the central airport of the former GDR, Berlin Schönefeld, once stood. Since last week, the former terminal building has been used as the Terminal BER 5BBI's new international aviation code. If the spirit of Schönefeld still survives in Terminal 5 - reserved for ultra-low-cost carriers such as Ryanair -, Berlin's other airport, Tegel, will close its doors for good on 8 November..
Le the last flight to reach Tegel will be Air France. It will land on the evening of 07 November from Paris CDG. Flight AF1134 will take off from Paris at 8.40pm and land in Berlin at 10.25pm. On 8 November, flight BER-CDG will take off from BBI at 10:05am.
Air France, Berlin Tegel's historic airline
Air France will be the last international airline to land at Tegel. Few people know that the French company is the de facto incumbent operator of this airport.
In the former West Berlin, Tegel, located in the French military sector, was built in 1948 in a hurry. Together with Tempelhof airport, it was used to receive aircraft supplying the western part of the city, which was then blocked by the Soviets. At the time, its 2,400 metre runway was the longest in Europe...
An ideal airport for the new jet aircraft. 24 February 1960, Air France launched the first scheduled flight to Tegel aboard a Caravelle. In the 1960s, the airport became a hub for charter flights, as well as for Pan Am's direct flight from Berlin to New York. Finally, in 1974, Berlin Tegel became West Berlin's new central airport..
Tegel's avant-garde architecture made it Europe's most innovative airport at the time. The decentralised hexagonal shape of the terminal meant that passengers could drive straight to the boarding gate. It took less than three minutes to drive the 30 metres to the check-in counter and the plane...
Once again, Air France was the first airline to use the new Tegel terminal. Its check-in desks were located in Gate 14.
In 1975, all the airlines in West Berlin moved from Tempelhof to Tegel, opening a new chapter in aviation in the metropolis.
Berlin airport continued to play an important role for the airline. In 2017, Tegel was one of the few airports to welcome flights from Joona virtually stillborn subsidiary of Air France.
Berlin Tegel will become a legend on Saturday. The former airport is to become home to housing, a university and a research centre. With one feature that will delight fans of the 70s: its listed Brutalist architecture will be well preserved in its new functions.
