Berlin Tegel is the main international airport of Berlin, ahead of the smaller Berlin Schönefeld Airport. It is the fourth busiest airport in Germany with just over 19.5 million passengers in 2013. The airport is a hub for Air Berlin and serves as a base for Germanwings. The airport is scheduled to be closed when the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport opens in 2016 or later.
In the ensuing US-led Berlin Airlift, it quickly turned out that Berlin’s existing main airport at Tempelhof was not big enough to accommodate all relief aircraft. As a consequence, the French military authorities in charge of Tegel at that time ordered the construction of the longest in Europe at the time, as well as provisional airport buildings and basic infrastructure. Groundbreaking took place in August 1948, and only 90 days later, a USAF aiplane became the first aircraft to land at the new airport.
Source: Wikipedia