Bizav Plan Proposed for Berlin Tempelhof

Hartmut Mehdorn, chairman of German railway group Deutsche Bahn, has proposed that Berlin’s downtown Tempelhof Airport be redeveloped as a dedicated business aviation facility. Mehdorn, who until the mid-1990s was a senior executive with Airbus and Deutsche Aerospace, has offered to lead a private-sector consortium to implement the project. The future of the airport–about 10 minutes from the heart of the German capital–is in doubt now that construction has finally started on the new Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, which is being built on the site of the existing Schoenefeld Airport. Tempelhof is due to close next October, with Berlin city authorities and the Berlin Airport Authority arguing that it is not financially viable. But demands to keep it open are once again gathering momentum and have won the support of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. TAG Aviation’s FBO at Tempelhof handles more than 7,300 movements per year and the airport also has scheduled airline operations.