Berlin Tegel Airport

Berlin Tegel Airport (German: Flughafen Tegel "Otto Lilienthal") (IATA: TXL, ICAO: EDDT) is the main international airport of Berlin, the federal capital of Germany, ahead of the smaller Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It is christened after Otto Lilienthal and is the fourth busiest airport in Germany with just over 20.7 million passengers in 2014. The airport is a hub for Air Berlin and serves as a base for Germanwings. It features flights to several European metropolitan and leisure destinations as well as some intercontinental routes.

It is situated in Tegel, a section of the northern borough of Reinickendorf, 8 km (5.0 mi) northwest of the city centre of Berlin. Tegel Airport is notable for its hexagonal main terminal building around an open square, which makes for walking distances as short as 30 m (98 ft) from the aircraft to the terminal exit. The airport is scheduled to be closed when the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport opens, not before 2018.

History

The beginnings

The area of today's airport originally was part of 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 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.

Air Berlin

Air Berlin PLC & Co. Luftverkehrs KG (FWB: AB1), branded as airberlin or airberlin.com, is Germany's second largest airline, after Lufthansa, and Europe's eighth largest airline in terms of passengers carried. It maintains hubs at Berlin Tegel Airport and Düsseldorf Airport and operates a route network that includes a total of 17 German cities, some European metropolitan and several leisure destinations in Southern Europe and North Africa, as well as intercontinental services to destinations in the Caribbean and the Americas.

Air Berlin is a member of the Oneworld alliance, and owns the subsidiaries NIKI in Austria and Belair in Switzerland. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Etihad Airways is the largest shareholder, having increased its shareholding to 29,21% in 2011. Air Berlin is headquartered in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, a borough of Berlin.

History

1978-1990: American charter airline in West Berlin

Originally registered as Air Berlin USA, the company was founded in 1978 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Lelco, an American agricultural enterprise headquartered in Oregon, to operate charter flights on behalf of German tour operators from Berlin Tegel Airport, mostly to Mediterranean holiday resorts. As a United States airline, Air Berlin was able to access the West Berlin airline market. During the Cold War, Berlin's special political status meant that the air corridors into and out of Tegel Airport could only be used by airlines registered in France, the United Kingdom or the United States. The airline's headquarters were initially at Tegel Airport. Leonard Lundgren was the first chairman.

Airbus A320 family

The Airbus A320 family consists of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The family includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, as well as the ACJ business jet. The A320s are also named A320ceo (current engine option) after the introduction of the A320neo. Final assembly of the family takes place in Toulouse, France, and Hamburg, Germany; a plant in Tianjin, China, has also been producing aircraft for Chinese airlines since 2009. Construction of a new production facility in Mobile, Alabama began in 2013. The aircraft family can accommodate up to 220 passengers and has a range of 3,100 to 12,000 km (1,700 to 6,500 nmi), depending on model.

The first member of the A320 family—the A320—was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was first delivered in March 1988. The family was soon extended to include the A321 (first delivered 1994), the A319 (1996), and the A318 (2003). The A320 family pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems, as well as side-stick controls, in commercial aircraft. There has been a continuous improvement process since introduction.

Berlin

Berlin (/bərˈlɪn/, German: [bɛɐ̯ˈliːn]) is the capital of Germany and one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.5 million people, it is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of Rivers Spree and Havel, it is the centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has about six million residents from over 180 nations. Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.

First documented in the 13th century and situated at the crossing of two important historic trade routes, Berlin became the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg (1417–1701), the Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918), the German Empire (1871–1918), the Weimar Republic (1919–1933) and the Third Reich (1933–1945).Berlin in the 1920s was the third largest municipality in the world. After World War II, the city was divided; East Berlin became the capital of East Germany while West Berlin became a de facto West German exclave, surrounded by the Berlin Wall (1961–1989) and East Germany territory. Following German reunification in 1990, Berlin was once again designated as the capital of united Germany.

Boeing 737 Next Generation

The Boeing 737 Next Generation, commonly abbreviated as 737NG, is the name given to the −600/-700/-800/-900 series of the Boeing 737 airliner. It is the third generation derivative of the 737, and follows the 737 Classic (−300/-400/-500) series, which began production in the 1980s. They are short- to medium-range, narrow-body jet airliners. Produced since 1996 by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the 737NG series includes four variants and can seat between 110 to 210 passengers.

A total of 5,419 737NG aircraft have been delivered by the end of May 2015, with more than 6,800 ordered. The -700, -800, and -900ER have unfilled orders and are being produced, but orders for -600 and -900 have been filled. The 737NG's primary competition is with the Airbus A320 family. Upgraded and re-engined models in development as the 737 MAX series will eventually supplant the 737NG.

Design and development

Background

Prompted by the development of the Airbus A320, which incorporated ground-breaking technologies such as fly-by-wire, in 1991 Boeing initiated development of an updated series of aircraft. After working with potential customers, the 737 Next Generation (NG) program was announced on November 17, 1993. The 737NG encompasses the −600, −700, −800 and −900 variants, and is to date the most significant upgrade of the airframe. The performance of the 737NG is essentially that of a new airplane, but important commonality is retained from previous 737 generations. The wing was modified, increasing its area by 25% and span by 16 ft (4.88 m), which increased the total fuel capacity by 30%. New quieter and more fuel-efficient CFM56-7B engines were used. These improvements combine to increase the 737's range by 900 nmi, permitting transcontinental service. A flight test program was operated by 10 aircraft: 3 -600s, 4 -700s, and 3 -800s.