Berlin Tegel Airport to Remain Open Into November

Departures board at Berlin Tegel Airport

The ongoing saga of Berlin’s new and old airports continues: Berlin Tegel Airport will remain open, at least for the time being.

In late May, city officials announced that Tegel – the city’s main international airport whose history goes back to the 1948 Berlin Airlift – would close temporarily on June 15, 2020, amidst a plunge in air traffic due to the coronavirus pandemic, saying it might never reopen given plans for the city’s new airport, Berlin Brandenburg, to open in the fall.

Now, the same officials say that the airport will close permanently on November 8, shortly after the new airport opens.

The new airport was intended to replace both Schönefeld and Berlin Tegel, giving the city a single airport (Tempelhof, the city’s third airport, closed in 2008). Given an increase in air traffic prior to the slowdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Schönefeld will remain open as well.

Two years ago, the city’s culture minister, Klaus Lederer, and Lutz Leichsenring of the city’s Clubcommission, a non-profit dedicated to the preservation, development, and future of the city’s club scene, said that Tegel might be converted to a club a mix of temporary and permanent music venues once it closes.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)