Air France was the first commercial airline to ever touch down at Berlin’s Tegel Airport 60 years ago, and has now become the final flight to depart, as the airport shuts its doors for the final time.
Flight AF1235 had the honour of being the final flight to depart Berlin Tegel Airport on Sunday, 8 November 2020, as the airport shut its doors just days after the long-overdue official opening of the new Berlin-Brandenburg Airport.
The 12-year old Airbus A320-200, registration F-GKXP msn 3470, departed Tegel at 3:39pm local time, bound for Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, where it landed just under an hour-and-a-half later.
It marked the last commercial flight to leave the small, antiquated airport that sits in the heart of Berlin, as BER finally welcomed passengers for the very first time on 31 October, following nine lengthy years of delays.
Built within just three months in 1948, Berlin Tegel was designed to handle just 2.5 million passengers per year, nowhere near the necessary facilities to serve as the main airport of Germany’s capital.
The airport saw 24 million passengers through its terminals in 2019.
In June, Tegel was officially closed to passengers for a period of two months, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent drop off in international travel demand, however at the time many believed it would never open to the public again.
While that scenario luckily did not come to pass, Tegel has now officially waved off its final passengers.
Following its closure, the airport will reportedly be converted to a new research and industrial park named “Berlin TXL”.
The plan also includes new housing and an urban park built on the site.
Further, the iconic terminal will be preserved and converted into a new campus for Beuth University.
