Press­ Release

#DankeTXL: Berlin says thank you
Berlin Tegel Airport to close tomorrow

On Sunday, 8 November 2020, Berlin Tegel Airport, TXL for short, will close its doors. All air traffic in the German capital region will be handled at Berlin Brandenburg Airport Willy Brandt (BER). The final commercial flights will depart from TXL already today, 7 November, marking the last day of scheduled operations in the airport’s over seventy years of history. A total of around 70 arrivals and departures are planned today.

Final arrivals and departures

With the third and last major stage of the relocation of operations to BER, there will be a total of 13 final departures and one final landing today, 7 November. This includes airlines such as Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss as well as Brussels Airlines, British Airways, KLM, Eurowings, Bulgaria Air, Air Baltic, Finnair, LOT and TAP Portugal:

• 10:50: Air Baltic BT202 to Tallinn
• 11:30: British Airways BA993 to London Heathrow
• 11:50: Brussels Airlines SN2582 to Brussels
• 12:15: Finnair AY1434 to Helsinki
• 12:20: LOT LO386 to Warsaw
• 14:30: Lübeck Air 6I7451 to Lübeck
• 15:40: TAP Portugal TP537 to Lisbon
• 18:25: KLM KL1832 to Amsterdam
• 18:35: Swiss LX971 to Zurich
• 19:25: Austrian OS236 to Vienna
• 21:20: Lufthansa LH1955 to Munich
• 22:25: Air France AF1134 from Paris CDG
• 22:50: Eurowings EW5239 to Berlin BER
• 22:50: Sundair SR8899 to Berlin BER

Au revoir: Air France closes the circle in Tegel

On Sunday at 3.00 p.m., Air France flight AF1235 to Paris Charles de Gaulle will mark the very last departure from TXL. The flight will be seen off by Michael Müller, Governing Mayor of Berlin, Anne-Marie Descôtes, Ambassador of the French Republic to the Federal Republic of Germany, and Engelbert Lütke Daldrup, CEO of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH. This will close the circle of commercial aviation at Tegel Airport, as Air France was the first airline to start scheduled operations at TXL over sixty years ago, when a Lockheed Super Constellation from Paris landed at the airport on 2 January 1960.

Keys to the airport to be handed over in a small ceremony

Following the farewell of the last flight, Engelbert Lütke Daldrup will then symbolically hand over the keys of Tegel Airport to the Governing Mayor of Berlin on behalf of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH. Gerry Woop, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Berliner Flughafen GmbH (BFG) and State Secretary for Europe in the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, and Dr. Philipp Bouteiller, CEO of Tegel Projekt GmbH, the company responsible for the redevelopment of the airport site, will also take part in the handover of the keys. Owing to pandemic-related restrictions, the ceremony can only take place in a very small circle with selected guests and media representatives.

Lights off after the final departure

At 7.45 p.m., Katy Krüger, Head of Terminal Management at Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH, will switch off the lights at Tegel Airport. More than seven decades of aviation history in TXL will then end with the symbolic “lights out”.

Tickets for observation deck sold out

Over the past weeks, more than 30,000 visitors came to TXL to take in the view of the apron from the observation deck one last time and say goodbye to the airport. Access was regulated by a reservation system in accordance with current hygiene rules. Tickets for today are already booked out. On Sunday, the observation deck will be closed to the public and reserved for accredited media representatives.

No public events / rbb to broadcast live

Due to current pandemic-related restrictions, no public events will be held at Berlin Tegel Airport on the closing weekend. On 8 November, access will be restricted to invited guests, accredited journalists and passengers on the last flight. However, for all those unable to attend, German TV channel rbb will broadcast the last departure and the final “lights out” live on 8 November, as well as reporting on events at TXL airport throughout the weekend, allowing all those interested to follow the farewell.

Photos and videos for the media will be available for download in the course of the evening at:

Media library