Despite efforts from business owners who wanted to keep Germany’s historic Tempelhof Airport open, a court in Berlin this week said it must close by Oct. 31, 2008. The airport was the scene of the post-World War II Berlin Airlift, and it was popular with travelers because of its convenient location near the city center. The court said the closing won’t infringe on the rights of the airport’s FBOs and caterers because they have plenty of time to move to a new airport, Bloomberg News reported on Monday. The court’s decision allows no appeal. Tempelhof has been an airport since the 1920s, and after World War II the Americans took over the airport. A few years later, the famous Berlin Airlift kept supplies flowing into West Berlin from the U.S., UK and France during a Soviet blockade. More than half a million passengers flew into or out of Tempelhof in 2005.
