A German court rejected an attempt to prevent the closure of Berlin’s historic airport. The closure is part of a plan to build a new international airport. The closure for Tempelhof airport is scheduled for October 2008. Tempelhof Airport was the site of the Berlin airlifts.
Tempelhof’s terminal is known as the largest built structure of its type, is 1.2km long and has an enormous overhanging canopy where planes can taxi and unload without concern for weather. Commercial and civil aviation was terminated in 1975, and it was used solely for military operations until 1990, when civil air traffic resumed. In 1994, the Allied forces in Berlin were deactivated in a ceremony at Tempelhof.
While Tegel Airport has the most scheduled flights, Schonefeld Airport, once the airport serving East Berlin, is set to be transformed into Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport by 2011, at which point Tegel will also be closed. It is always sad when an airport closes….especially when it is a piece of history. Hopefully, the historic buildings at both airports will be preserved somehow.