I have been looking at every single airline that operates to Berlin and says they will cease operations to Berlin-Tegel one day, and start operating to Berlin-Brandenburg Airport the next day.
So my guess on why there re-routing airlines to that airport is because it is bigger and its new? But I might be wrong. I want to hear from you guys. Why are the re-routing every airline to that airport? And what will they do to the old airport? Will the same thing happen with the New Doha and Old Doha, Qatar’s airport soon too?
If my memory serves me right the East Germans built an airport with longer runways in the eastern sector to compete with Tegal which was on land not constricted by buildings. Also to hinder flights using Tegal they erected a tower directly on the approach path overflying East Germany. Having flown into both Tegal with Dan-Air and the new East Berlin Airport with Iraqi Airways during the 1970 Tegal was an old pre-war generation airport compared with the then new East Berlin airport.
I flew in and out of Tegel a couple of years ago. The layout is really cramped and getting into the city can be a solid traffic jam at certain times of day. We actually flew over the new airport on our way in from Munich. It looks really huge kind of like Denver or Atlanta with multiple runways.
About Tegel/Schönefeld/Tempelhof: The new Brandenburg Airport is being built on the site of Schönefeld. When you fly over it, it indeed looks huge, but be aware that at the moment it’s about 2 airports The north is the old airport (of which one runway will be used for the new one), the south is the new. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_B … ed_BBI.png shows pretty clear what is new/old.
Regarding Tegel: it’s a pretty different layout, with a tiny distance between the entrance door and the airplane. Yep, it’s old and yep it’s about time they replace it. Last time I’ve been there was in May and I sat outside the terminal building for what seemed to be the last time I could use Tegel. I love that airport. Connection to the city is horrible (I personally dislike buses - no metro available), it’s cramped and old, but it still has that really nice feeling of how flying used to be: get out of your car, walk 15 yards and get in your plane. No huge shopping malls, just planes.
Tegel and Tempelhof were the airports for West-Berlin, Schönefeld for the East. Tempelhof closed in 2008, I went there one week after the closure. Weirdest experience I’ve ever had at an airport: closed, still some luggage carts outside, but still 100% an airport.
The Brandenburg Airport should have been opened a couple of months ago, but a couple of WEEKS before opening they found out it wasn’t ready… Opening is delayed until March 2013, if I’m correct.
Flying into Tegel is sort of a throwback to the 1950s or 60s, I doubt it’s had a serious upgrade since then. Many of the gates require you to take a bus, even to board a Lufthansa 737. The terminal building itself woefully undersized to handle the capacity and does not have the basic design elements to deal with a modern traveler. There were no wheeled suitcases when they built this place, my friends.
If you want to know what it was like to go in and out of Idlewild in the heyday of Pan Am, then you’ll love it. But I’m hopeful that the next time I go to Berlin it will be to the newer airport. The city itself is becoming very popular with tourists and consolidating operations into one modern facility will be welcomed.
The only cool thing I remember from being there was there was a Mongolian Airlines A330 sitting on a pad. I assume it was for some sort of charter. I’ve been around the world but have never seen another Mongolian Airlines aircraft. Then again, I’ve never been to Mongolia.
The north is the old airport (of which one runway will be used for the new one), the south is the new. 