Last-ditch efforts by small operators to keep Berlin Tempelhof Airport open have failed after a German federal administrative court upheld the decision to close the site.
The Berlin-Brandenburg supreme administrative court ruled on 12 February that loss-making downtown Tempelhof should close on 31 October 2008, as part of the development of the capital’s new Berlin Brandenburg International Airport.
But four small carriers, notably jet charter operator Windrose Air and medical organisation Ambulanz Flug, had sought court authority to keep Tempelhof open.
Today, however, the federal court upheld the decision and ended the long-running saga centred on the historic airport which was the focus of the 1948-49 Berlin Airlift.
“We now have definitive legal certainty over the closure of the inner city airports,” says Berlin airports authority chief Rainer Schwarz, adding that diminishing traffic has resulted in over €160 million ($236 million) in losses at Tempelhof since 1991.
Extra general aviation space is being created at Berlin Schonefeld Airport to accommodate business traffic. Schonefeld will be the foundation of the new Berlin hub which will open in winter 2011.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com