Berlin Tegel "Otto Lilienthal" Airport () was an airport in Berlin, the capital of Germany. In its heyday, it was the city's primary international airport. During the Cold War era, it served West Berlin. The airport was named after aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal and was the fourth busiest airport in Germany, with over 24 million passengers in 2019. In 2016, Tegel handled over 60% of all airline passenger traffic in Berlin. The airport served as a base for Eurowings, Ryanair and easyJet. It featured flights to several European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as some intercontinental routes. It was situated in Tegel, a section of the northern borough of Reinickendorf, northwest of the city centre of Berlin. Tegel Airport was notable for its hexagonal main terminal building around an open square, which made walking distances as short as from the aircraft to the terminal exit.
TXL saw its last flight on 8 November 2020 after all traffic had been transferred gradually to the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport.rbb24.de - "Airport stays open until November" (German) 3 June 2020aerotelegraph.com - "Moving schedule" (German) 1 October 2020 It was legally decommissioned as an airfield after a mandatory transitional period on 4 May 2021.Brandenburg finally open for business Airliner World January 2021 page 7 All government flights were also relocated to the new airport with the exception of helicopter operations, which moved to the new airport in October 2025.rbb24.de (German) 21 October 2020bz-berlin.de (German) 30 October 2025
The airport's grounds are due to be redeveloped into a new city quarter dedicated to scientific and industrial research named Urban Tech Republic, which is to retain the airport's main building and tower as a repurposed landmark.
History
Beginnings
The area of today's airport originally was part of the Jungfernheide forest, which served as a hunting ground for the Prussian nobility. During the 19th century, it was used as an artillery firing range. Aviation history dates back to the early 20th century, when the Royal Prussian airship battalion was based there and the area became known as Luftschiffhafen Reinickendorf. In 1906, a hangar was built for testing of Groß-Basenach and Parseval type airships.
Soon after the outbreak of World War I, on 20 August 1914, the area was dedicated to military training of aerial reconnaissance crews. Following the war, all aviation industry was removed as a consequence of the Treaty of Versailles, which prohibited Germany from having any armed aircraft. On 27 September 1930, Rudolf Nebel launched an experimental rocket testing and research facility on the site. It became known as Raketenschießplatz Tegel and attracted a small group of eminent aerospace engineers that included German rocket pioneer Wernher von Braun. In 1937, the rocket pioneers left Tegel in favour of the secret Peenemünde army research centre.
During World War II, the area served once again as a military training area, mostly for flak troops. It was destroyed in Allied air raids.
Cold War era (1948–1990)
Berlin Airlift
Plans for converting the area into allotment gardens were shelved due to the Berlin Blockade, which began on 24 June 1948. In the ensuing Berlin Airlift, it quickly turned out that Berlin's existing main airport at Tempelhof was not big enough to accommodate all relief aircraft. The original planned location for a French-zone airport, the village of Stolpe, had been given to the French by the Soviets in 1945 for this purpose, but it was deemed too far from central Berlin. As a consequence, the French military authorities in charge of Tegel at that time ordered the construction of a long runway, the longest in Europe at the time,Berlin Tegel Airport History, Berlin Tegel, AIRwise as well as provisional airport buildings and basic infrastructure. Groundbreaking took place on 5 August 1948, and only 90 days later, on 5 November, a United States Air Force (USAF) Douglas C-54 Skymaster became the first aircraft to land at the new airport. The United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) commander-in-chief, General Cannon, and the chief-of-staff of the Anglo-American airlift, General Tunner, arrived at Tegel on this aircraft.La base aérienne 165 de Berlin–Tegel
British Dakota and Hastings aircraft carrying essential goods and raw materials began using Tegel on a regular basis from 17 November 1948. Generally, the former carried food and fuel while the latter were loaded with coal. Regular cargo flights with American C-54s followed from 14 December 1948.
The village of Stolpe was occupied on 21 December 1945 by the Soviets in retaliation for the detonation by the French command of Soviet-zone radio towers located in Tegel's approach path on 16 December 1948.
December 1948 also saw three Armée de l'Air Junkers Ju 52/3m transport planes participating in the airlift for the first time. However, the Armée de l'Air contributed to the overall airlift effort in a very small and symbolic way only. As a result of committing the French transport fleet to the growing war effort in Indochina, as well as the joint Anglo-American decision to employ only four-engined planes for the remainder of the airlift to increase the number of flights and the amount of cargo carried on each flight by taking advantage of those aircraft's higher speeds and greater capacities, the French participation ceased.
Base aérienne 165 Berlin Tegel Following the end of the Berlin Airlift in May 1949, Tegel became the Berlin base of the Armée de l'Air, eventually leading to the establishment of Base aérienne 165 at Berlin Tegel on 1 August 1964. Tegel was home to a small detachment of the French Army Light Aviation, which used single engined Cessna O-1 Bird Dog from 1968 to 1993, and Sud-Ouest Alouette III Helicopters from May 1987 until June 1994. The Armée de l'Air had a single Max Holste MH1521 Broussard until 1988, when it was replaced by a DeHavilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter for liaison and surveillance flights.
The end of the Cold War and German reunification resulted in the deactivation of the Western Allies' armed forces in Berlin in July 1994. This in turn led to the decommissioning of Base aérienne 165 the same year.
Commercial operations
In the late 1950s, the runways at West Berlin's city centre Tempelhof Airport had become too short to accommodate the new-generation jet aircraft such as the Aérospatiale Caravelle, Boeing 707, de Havilland Comet,except the 4B series, which could operate viably at Tempelhof with a restricted payload and Douglas DC-8, without imposing payload or range restrictions that made commercial operations unviable.Berlin Airport Company – Special Report on Air France's 25th Anniversary at Berlin Tegel, March 1985 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tegel Airport, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1985
West Berlin's special legal status during the Cold War era (1945–1990) meant that all air traffic through the Allied air corridors linking the exclave with West Germany was restricted to airlines headquartered in the United States, the United Kingdom, or France – three of the four victorious powers of World War II. In addition, all flightdeck crewpilots, flight engineers, and navigators flying aircraft into and out of West Berlin were required to hold American, British, or French passports.Berlin Airport Company, Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, various editions April 1968 – October 1990 During that period, the majority of Tegel's regular commercial flights served West German domestic routes, hub airports in Frankfurt, London, Paris, Amsterdam, points in the United States, and popular holiday resorts in the Mediterranean and Canary Islands.Berlin Airport Company, April and August 1968 Monthly Timetable Booklets for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1968
Initially, all commercial flights used the original terminal building (a pre-fabricated shed), which was situated to the North of the runway, at what is today the military part of the airport.
In 1988, Berlin Tegel was named after German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal.
Air France
Air France was the first airline to commence regular commercial operations at Tegel on 2 January 1960.Berlin Airport Company – Airline Portrait – Air France, March 1975 Monthly Timetable Booklet for Berlin Tempelhof and Berlin Tegel Airports, Berlin Airport Company, West Berlin, 1975
On that day, Air France, which had served Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Nuremberg, and its main base at Paris Le Bourget/Orly during the previous decade from Tempelhof with Douglas DC-4, Sud-Est Languedoc, and Lockheed Constellation/Super Constellation piston equipment, shifted its entire Berlin operation to Tegel because Tempelhof's runways were too short to permit the introduction of the Sud-Aviation Caravelle, the French flag carrier's new short-haul jet, with a viable payload.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120724005700/http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1972/1972%20-%202017.html BEA in Berlin Flight International 10 August 1972 pages 180/181Aeroplane – Pan Am and the IGS, Vol. 116, No. 2972, p. 5, Temple Press, London, 2 October 1968 (Air France's Caravelle IIIs lacked thrust reversers that would have permitted them to land safely on Tempelhof's short runways with a full commercial payload.
Following the move to Tegel, Air France initially used Lockheed Super Constellation piston equipment on all Berlin flights. On 24 February 1960, Air France became the first airline to introduce jet aircraft on its Berlin routes when the new Caravelles began replacing the Super Constellations. It also became the first and at the time the only one to offer two classesincluding a 16-seat first class section on Caravelles (in addition to a 64-seat economy section) on short-haul flights serving West Berlin.Bonjour Deutschland – Luftverkehr unter Nachbarn: Air France in Berlin, p. 15