Another world

In 1986 I flew from Manchester to Frankfurt for £99 roundtrip on a “super apex” fare twenty four years later I flew to Berlin (no east or west now!!) for £70 roundtrip with Ryanair. This fact demonstrates why the airline industry is in so much trouble

When I was growing up in the 1980’s Schonefeld Airport in Berlin was quite literally in a different world being the airport serving the East German Capital Berlin. I had (have) a real interest in Aviation and during the 1980’s this was one of the most exotic places to go, the aircraft of the Eastern Bloc countries were common visitors throughout Europe but the Interflug aircraft were much less common. One of the Aviation societies used to arrange occasional tours to East Berlin to see the aircraft. Although I never went on any of these tours visiting Schonefeld Airport was like going back in time, very little has changed and you still get a feeling of being in the east. The building is decrepit and almost unchanged since communism. With the expansion of air travel it is massively overcrowded.

Gatow and Tempelhof have already closed, Tegal will close along with Schonefeld in 2012, when Berlin Brandenburg Airport will open on the same site and Berlin will have a single airport. As I said, it’s another world and every day its a world that exists a little less