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What future for Berlin Tempelhof airport?
By Volker K. Thomalla
The tug-of-war over whether to keep or close the unique city airport of Berlin Tempelhof is intensifying. On the one hand the air transport authority of the state of Berlin has issued a closure notice for the airport to shut down on 31 October 2007, while on the other hand two American investors have independently announced their interest in investing a triple digit million sum of money in the city airport of Tempelhof. However, they are only prepared to part with their money if flying operations continue to be guaranteed in the future.
The arguments for retaining the airport are varied and, in my view, are convincing: as a business and general aviation airport, Tempelhof can assume an important function as a transport centre in the capital city. If the new Berlin-Brandenburg International (BBI) airport is a success, then, as in all major metropolitan airports, there will be fierce competition for space, with the smallest aircraft likely to be dealt the worst cards. For example, someone wishing to fly a business jet to London today is extremely unlikely to be allowed to land in Heathrow. Instead he will invariably be forced to go to an airport far outside the city limits. And jets which land in London City are not allowed to park there, but have to fly to a neighbouring airfield to wait for their passengers!
This would not happen in Tempelhof, even if its present huge apron area were to be trimmed back. In Tempelhof, Berlin has a high-capacity, long established business airport already up and running. Anyone who saw the Tempelhof apron during the final days of the World Cup will appreciate what this airport could do for Berlin.
Yet the Governing Mayor, Klaus Wowereit, is deaf to such pleas. He is intent on closing Tempelhof at any price. In a television interview which took place after the interest of a second investor had been announced and knowing full well that no one up to now has been interested in investing unless flying operations are continued, he said, “It is still possible to invest in Tempelhof without flying operations.”
The proponents of keeping it open have won a powerful ally in Deutsche Bahn. Together with the American-German investor, Fred Langhammer, it has put in an application to take over the flying operations from 30 October 2007. In so doing, unlike other potential investors, Deutsche Bahn has declared a serious intention to keep the airport open, taking the senator for city development, Ingeborg Junge-Reyer, completely by surprise. The Acting Mayor cannot simply brush off this request with some wisecrack, as no one can accuse Deutsche Bahn of wanting to endanger the success of BBI, given the huge amount it is investing in the new city airport itself.
Deutsche Bahn and the investor Langhammer are quite serious about it. They want to not just keep Tempelhof, but keep it as a complete complex with health centre, hotels and flying operations. Tempelhof would finally awake from its hibernation and be operated profitably. Anyone who believes that Berlin has a future cannot help believing that Tempelhof has an important role to play in its success. No doubt there will be a showdown in the courts, in the course of which Berlin will win a lot as a city, but it could also lose a lot.
From page 4 of FLUG REVUE 2/2007
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