Berlin Schonefeld Airport

Berlin-Schonefeld Airport(IATA: SXF, ICAO: EDDB) is an international airport located near the town of Schonefeld in Brandenburg, directly at the southern border of Berlin and 18 km (11 mi) southeast of the city centre. Schonefeld was the major civil airport of East Germany (GDR), and the only airport serving East Berlin. Today, it is the smaller of the two Berlin airports.

Schonefeld Airport is situated outside the city proper, unlike Berlin Tegel Airport. Noise pollution is, therefore, less of an issue at Schonefeld. This is the main reason that the airport will be transformed into Berlin Brandenburg Airport by 2012.

Schonefeld Airport saw a major increase in passenger numbers over the recent years, which was caused by the opening of a base for EasyJet and Germanwings. In 2008, the airport served 6.6 million passengers.

Berlin-Schonefeld airport was opened on 15 October 1934 to accommodate the Henschel aircraft plant. By the end of the Second World War, over 14,000 aircraft had been built. On 22 April 1945, the airport was occupied by Soviet troops, and the aircraft construction facilities were either dismantled or blown up. By late 1947, the airport rail link had been repaired and agricultural machinery was built and repaired on the site. In 1946, the Soviet Air Forces moved from Johannisthal Air Field to Schonefeld, including the civil airline Aeroflot. In 1947, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany approved the construction of a civilian airport at the site. Between 1947 and 1990, Schonefeld airport was renamed on several occasions and finally became the main airport of the DDR (Zentralflughafen).