The switch from using Berlin Templehof to Berlin Tegel on September 1, 1975 concentrated all the remaining IGS routes at the more distant airport. Although the fleets dedicated to the IGS routes of both Pan Am and British Airways were reduced from their heyday they were still important to both airlines. The 1980s would bring about a rebirth of competition that would challenge the status quo until the reunification of Germany itself made the IGS obsolete.
For the previous part in this series see:
By 1980 the IGS routes were still being served by Pan Am, using its 727-21s, and British Airways, using its One-Eleven 510Eds. Pan Am was looking at replacing its 727s with the larger series 200 Advanced and the airline was able to opportunistically source its first pair from Ozark Airlines. Ozark had acquired a pair of new 727-2D4 Advs configured for 149 passengers and with an added central fuel tank increasing their range to nearly 3,000 miles. Ozark wanted to use the aircraft to fly to the Caribbean, the Bahamas and the US West Coast but during 1980 it was caught out by a 52-day flight attendants strike, which was followed by a mechanics strike.
Pan Am was able to take the pair of 727s off of Ozark’s hands, albeit Ozark apparently made a profit on them. Both aircraft were transferred to the IGS and used to increase capacity on the Berlin-Frankfurt route. Re-registered N361PA and N362PA they became known as ‘Clipper Berlin’ and ‘Clipper Frankfurt’ respectively. Pan Am had 8 of its own 727-221s on order but its financial weakness meant that the order was cancelled, at least initially, only to be restored in 1980. Pan Am had by this time taken over National but none of their 727 fleet was transferred to the IGS.
Even though Pan Am’s new 727-221 Advs began to arrive in December 1981 the airline, now under the command of Ed Acker from Air Florida, decided to acquire used 737-200s on lease to replace the remaining 727-21s. The story of the 737s will be discussed in a separate blog article coming soon.
All sixteen of the 737-200s acquired German Clipper names. The addition of the 737s did at least allow for a major expansion of the IGS fleet and in 1984 Pan Am’s aircraft movements at Tegel increased by 20%. At the same time Pan Am’s German and Central European headquarters moved from Frankfurt to Berlin.
British Airways had themselves not been stagnant with their IGS operations and in 1983 the One-Elevens were replaced with 737-236 Advs meaning that for the first time both Pan Am and BA were operating the same equipment on the routes.
British Airways was joined by a second British airline on an IGS route in January 1984 when Dan Air replaced the French airline TAT in operating the Saarbrücken service. TAT had served the route since 1978. Dan Air used HS748s for the route and was no newbie to Berlin, having already established itself as West Berlin’s leading charter airline. It also flew scheduled services from Berlin to Amsterdam and London Gatwick.
Pan Am appears to have had second-thoughts about the 737s and in 1985 four of them were returned to their lessors. On the plus side they were replaced by something completely new for the IGS – widebodies. In April 1985 Pan Am introduced the first ever wide body on the IGS in the form of the Airbus A310-200 configured with 18 Clipper and 207 economy class seats.
The A310s served Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart and increased the daily IGS seating capacity on weekdays by 3342 seats (42.9%). The first four A310-200s gained German Clipper names including ‘Clipper Berlin’ and ‘Clipper Frankfurt’. The two 727-2D4 Advs were assigned new non-German Clipper names suggesting they were not being used on IGS routes at the time.
They utilised a fleet of four 727-31s (the aircraft rotated back to the US at regular intervals) and flew 5 times daily to Frankfurt, three times daily to Hamburg, twice to Nuremberg, twice to Stuttgart and three times to Munich. TWA were the only airline to provide hot meals on their flights but the IGS was not a financial success for them.
From within Europe Air France was keen to reclaim some of its lost market and enterprisingly partnered with Lufthansa, who were still forbidden from operating to Berlin, to create Euroberlin France in a 51:49% partnership (Lufthansa had to be the minority shareholder). Euroberlin France was designed from the off to be a low-cost competitor. Monarch Airlines was hired to provide the aircraft (four 737-300s) and flightdeck crew. Aside from cabin crew everything else was outsourced.
Service began for Euroberlin to Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich and Stuttgart on November 7, 1988. Additional services to Düsseldorf and Hamburg began in 1989 with the fleet increased to five 737-300s.
1989 was of course a momentous year for Berlin as on November 9, 1989 the Berlin Wall was finally breached and events led quickly to the collapse of the East German state, and then German reunification on October 3, 1990. At the time of the breach of the wall West Berlin was being served by the following airlines operating IGS routes:
For the British Airlines serving IGS routes Dan Air ended its lone service to Sarrbrucken at the end of the Summer 1991 schedule. The rest of its charter operations were reduced as its rights to operate in Germany were restricted and it attempted to focus on operations at London Gatwick.
British Airways also faced losing its rights to operate domestically within Germany, since no reciprocal rights existed for German airlines in the UK and Lufthansa, and other German airlines, lobbied for foreign airline operations to be curtailed. It got around the problem by acquiring a 49% share in the the regional airline Delta Air, which became Deutsche BA.
The summer of 1991 was therefore the last in which IGS services were operated by non-German airlines at least until the liberalisation of the European air travel market.
References
A Recap of IGS Operations from 1984. Panam.org Euroberlin France. Wikipedia TWA Service to Berlin. Airliners.net Pan Am Express. Wikipedia
5 Comments
Richard J Neyland
21/1/2022 04:52:31 am
Excellent articles! From 1977 to 1980, I was stationed at Tempelhof Airport with the U.S. Air Force 6912th Electronic Security Group. At that time, there was one airline serving Tempelhof: Berlin Air Taxi with a North American/Rockwell Aero Commander 690, which I believe seated 6 to 8 passengers on charter flights. Unusual visitors to THF included Air Force One (President Jimmy Carter's visit), a Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer (photo mapping operation), and a hijacked LOT Polish Airlines Tu-134. My first flight into Berlin TXL Airport was on a Pan Am 727-121 and when I transferred out was on one of the new 727-2D4's which had been intended for delivery to Ozark. On my days off when I wanted to go into "the Zone" (West Germany), I would take the military train rather than to fly, as the rail trip was free. Much of that time I had spent at the Frankfurt Flughafen taking pictures of the various airliners serving the city or going into town to hit up the myriad of airline ticket offices for postcards and other collectibles. Two items to be mentioned could be of the mysterious disappearance of a Pan Am 727-100 cargo flight which crashed some miles west of Berlin and the reopening of Tempelhof to regional European traffic. I will continue to access this educational website and place a donation. Fine work and a great collection of die-casts, which I am also into!
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Richard J Neyland
21/1/2022 04:56:53 am
Please notify me by email from other readers who would like to share their Berlin experiences. Additional information should be posted regarding East Berlin's Schonefeld Airport. Thx.
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Richard Heller
5/5/2024 02:45:27 am
In the mid-70s, I flew several times with my father from Hanover to Berlin Tempelhof to visit his sister (and my aunts). Unfortunately I don't recall what kind of aircraft we used. I was just five years old. I remember the ceiling of Tempelhof and a visit to the cockpit all children were provided to. The Hanover-Berlin relation must have been served by a British airline, perhaps BEA. Can anybody help finding the type of plane?
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Bernhard Grabowiecki
21/5/2024 09:01:11 am
Hi Richard, good to hear about your recollections, the aircraft I believe would have been the BAC 1-11 that BEA initially introduced to compete with Pan American’s Boeing 727’s in the late 1960's. I too travelled to and from West Berlin from Hanover. My late mother was German and arrived in England in 1948 after getting out of Berlin in 1948 in the famous Berlin Airlift. She married my late father in 1950 and after I was born at the age of 18 month I was taken to see my Oma und Opa (grandparents) in Sept 1954. Strangely I do have some recollections of climbing a steep incline and wearing a very wide seatbelt. I later found out it was a BEA Dakota. It was the beginning of my love of aviation. Over the years as a family we travelled to West Berlin for our school holidays in winter and summer and my Oma bought me lovely pair of binoculars for my 9th birthday (which I still use today!). The journeys were mainly on BEA Viscounts to and from Hanover and Tempelhof. Then it became interesting when we travelled from our home in Manchester via Düsseldorf or via London Heathrow on board Comets Vanguards and the lovely Tridents. My keen interest in aviation grew to a point that I became an aircraft engineer and joined BOAC in 1968. Travel then became a quick hop over for the weekend with staff travel tickets at £2 return via Frankfurt and getting onto a Pan Am Boeing 727 for the final leg to Tempelhof. When my grandparents retired in 1971 they moved to the south of Germany to Bavaria right by the boarder with Austria. Munich Airport then became the new norm with Frankfurt the terminus to connect flights. Now retired myself I look fondly back at the halcyon days of air travel the better service and the legroom in Economy class too, and not the hassle, stress of todays rush to get to the bottom of league tables of mediocrity. Thank you Richard for the memories.
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Richard Heller
25/8/2024 09:46:00 am
Hello Bernhard, thank you for your memories. Yes, service was better in the olden days. I recall my flights to and in Scandinavia. In 1994 and 1995, a selection of rolls, sausages, cheese and salad at SAS and a full meal with metal knife and fork at Braathens S. A. F. E. (South America and Far East, but great abbreviation though). In 1999 no change at SAS, but just some kind of hamburger in a paper bag at Braathens (now without S. A. F. E.). In 2003 a sandwich at SAS. What a deline... Leave a Reply. |
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