Berlin Brandenburg

A Legacy of Private Aviation

SXF originated on October 15th, 1934, with three 2,600-foot-long runways constructed to serve the Henschel aircraft plant. By the end of WWII, over 14,000 aircraft had been built on the plant. Its time as an aircraft plant concluded on April 22nd, 1945, as facilities were occupied by Soviet troops, and the plant was demolished. The following year, Soviet Air Forces moved onto the base, including the civilian airline Aeroflot. The construction of a civilian airport on site was approved in 1947 by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany. As part of the Four Power Agreements following the war, German carriers were banned from participation in air transport to Berlin, with only American, British, French, and Soviet airlines allowed access. As SXF was not technically in Berlin, the restriction did not apply to them. On the other hand, West German Lufthansa was denied access to Tegel and Tempelhof airports, which inevitably led to their hub in Frankfurt. Following German reunification in 1990, it had become apparent that operating three airports in one city would be inefficient, leading to plans to build a single airport that would be both cost-efficient and decrease the amount of noise from flights over the city. It was determined that Berlin Brandenburg Airport would be built at the current site of Schoenfeld airport. Although it was originally scheduled to open in late 2012, the opening was postponed until November 2020 for various reasons. In the meantime, Germanwings left SXF in 2020 for Berlin-Tegel to maintain closer operations within the Lufthansa group, which was based there. However, by 2015 they returned to the airport to provide competition for the multitude of new routes that had been added by Ryanair (which established a German base at Schoenfeld on October 27th, 2015). On May 2nd, aircraft departing SXF became the first to use the new runway of Brandenburg Airport, as the SXF runway was closed for renovations. And although the airport was slated to close, the extension works at the terminals proceeded, with Terminal K being extended by 6,500 square feet and Terminal M2 (a new arrival terminal) being built west of Terminal M - although this area was relocated to a new area in P6 (as part of the new airport). As Berlin grew economically, SXF continued to see growing numbers of passengers and, by 2016, was operating at near-full capacity. In late 2018, works to renovate the terminal and apron in order to provide higher capacity to Berlin Brandenburg commenced. On October 25th, Schoenfeld airport became Terminal 5 of the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport, bringing about its end as an independent airport. The original intention was for the terminal to be in use for the benefit of Ryanair until the new Terminal 3 opened in 2030. However, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lower passenger numbers brought about its closure on February 22nd, 2021. On November 2022, it was announced that Terminal 5 would remain closed, never to see any aircraft activity again.