soon to be abandoned © Lilly Schwartz 2012

The Berlin region has been in the German news lately for screwing up the project of the new airport. Just one month before the first flight from the new airport was supposed to take off, suddenly they surprised everyone by saying that there are problems with the project. Currently there are several airports in service around Berlin, one being Tegel, which is only 20 minutes by bus from here. Since my neighbourhood lies close to the typical route taken by landing planes, I do hear them and see them sometimes. When I saw the big sign at Tegel airport, that they will take it out of service in June, I was sceptical and honestly a bit annoyed, since for me it’s rather convenient to have the airport close by. Just a week after I took this picture at Tegel airport the news came through that indeed they will have to postpone opening the new airport. For me it means having the airport close by for a while longer, and a bit more noise because of the landing planes. And it also means that I can take more pictures there. In and around airports you can always find spaces that are hardly used, empty and falling into disarray, which I find really interesting for taking pictures. Soon I also want to make a trip to the abandoned Tempelhof airport. You frequently see people letting kites fly there, because it’s a space unobstructed by electrical wiring or buildings.

The picture shows a service road leading up to the runway taken from within the airport building of Tegel airport.