AP News, December 4th, 2007
Historic Tempelhof Airport — which played a key role in the Berlin airlift in the wake of World War II — will close to passengers in 2008, Germany's top administrative court confirmed Tuesday.
The court threw out a bid to prevent Tempelhof's closure as part of plans to expand Schoenefeld airport, a former military airport on the city's outskirts, into Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport.
Several airline companies that use the centrally located Tempelhof airport tried to block the closure.
But the Leipzig-based Federal Administrative Court rejected their claims, approving an earlier decision by a Berlin-Brandenburg administrative court that argued in February that acceptable alternatives were available and that the move did not infringe on the airlines' rights.
The money-losing Tempelhof is scheduled to shut on Oct. 31, 2008. Three airlines still using Tempelhof — Brussels Airlines, the German carrier Cirros Airlines and the Austrian company Intersky — will be required to reroute their flights to Berlin's Schoenefeld airport starting Nov. 1.
Tempelhof, which opened in 1923, was expanded under the Nazis into a huge, horseshoe-shaped complex. Its massive terminal is one of the most prominent remaining examples of the era's architecture in Berlin.
After World War II left the city divided into east and west, Tempelhof became the hub of the nearly yearlong, U.S.-led Berlin airlift when the Soviets blockaded West Berlin in 1948.
Tempelhof — the closest of the city's three international airports to downtown Berlin — is now used only for short-haul flights with small aircraft.
While it is too small for many modern jets, its backers value its location.
Schoenefeld will be expanded into the capital's new hub, Berlin-Brandenburg International, by 2011. Berlin's Tegel Airport also is slated to close.
