BERLIN TEMPELHOF AIRPORT will linger on for a while yet, though no-one seems able to say for how long. A local court has said the historic facility should stay open at least temporarily after customer airlines including the biggest, SN Brussels Airlines, objected.
The state authority Berliner Flughafen Gesellschaft which runs all three Berlin airports, wants to close Tempelhof and Tegel and build up Schoenefeld, where it has been given the green light for a ”1.7 billion expansion. The new facility would have a capacity of 20 million passengers and would be renamed Berlin Brandenburg International Airport. Work is due to begin in 2006 and be completed by 2010.
Tempelhof was scheduled to close on October 31 2004 after 81 years, with Tegel scheduled to close six months after the new airport becomes operational. Carriers joining SN Brussels Airlines in opposing the Tempelhof plan include Hapag-Lloyd, Germania, dba (formerly Deutsche BA) and business jet charter company Bizair.
The airport authority says the closure is necessary because Tempelhof is losing money, quoting last year's performance when it handled just 450,000 passengers and made a loss of ”15 million. Some observers however blame the authority for the situation, pointing out it has been saying for 10 years it is going to close the airport and because of that more and more airlines left or didn't come - the classic vicious circle.
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