Pan Am's Internal German Service once outpaced US domestic flights in 1980
It’s time for another post about the 1980s thanks to SkyGo’s schedule data, but this one actually begins much earlier. Today I want to talk about Pan Am, but more specifically, Pan Am’s famed Internal German Service (IGS). Why am I writing about this? Well, I was busy playing around looking at the data when I came across something that surprised me. In 1980, Pan Am had more domestic flights in West Germany than it did in the US. Just let that sink in. Pan Am Departures Domestic Departures by Region OAG schedule data via SkyGo Naturally this changed very quickly toward the end of 1980 when National’s NA code disappeared into Pan Am post-merger. But the IGS kept on flying, and somehow it went to the bitter end even though it had become technically irrelevant in 1990. The Rise of the IGS In the 1950s, West Germany was being rebuilt after World War II, and Berlin was a challenge. At the end of the war, Berlin had been split into four zones. In West Berlin, there was an American, British, and French zone. East Berlin, the capital of East Germany, was Soviet-controlled. West Berlin was completely surrounded by East Germany, and that caused its own issues. (Look up the Berlin Airlift if you aren’t familiar with that heroic effort.) But by the 1950s, recovery in West Germany was in full swing, and there was no German airline to fly to West Berlin. Only American, British, and French carriers were allowed into West Berlin per the terms of the German surrender, so the rebuilding Lufthansa was shut out. In the American sector, Pan Am, America’s chosen instrument, became the carrier of West Berlin. It initially operated from Tempelhof Airport along with British European Airways (BEA, later British Airways) and Air France. By the late 1950s, Tempelhof’s short runways were a problem for new jets, and so Air France moved to Tegel Airport in the French sector. Pan Am flew a New York flight from Tegel, but it kept everything else at Tempelhof thanks to jets with short-field capabilities. That didn’t last. In 1975, it and British Airways moved over to Tegel entirely, and Tempelhof was shut. By then, West Berlin traffic had sagged as road restrictions were loosened allowing more people to go on the ground, but Tegel was still a hugely important lifeline. And that’s when the data kicks in. Here’s a look at the IGS route map from 1980 until the end. Not all of these operated the entire time, but I’ll talk through that. This was quite an operation. Pan Am IGS route map using OAG data via SkyGo, map via Claude The routes in blue were core routes that regularly and consistently operated from the different parts of West Germany to Berlin. The black lines were operated some of the time as Pan Am tried to find the right network. You’ll notice some of that flying included domestic flights wholly within contiguous West Germany, but that wasn’t a huge amount of flying. Also, the dotted lines show when Ransome was brought over in the late 1980s to start Pan Am Express using ATRs. Some of these — Sylt, anyone? — are very, very thin routes even today. What happened during the 1980s in Berlin was fascinating. Pan Am continued to be the most dominant presence at Tegel until the winds of change blew in at the end of the decade. Take a look. Berlin Tegel Annual Departures by Airline OAG schedule data via SkyGo All of a sudden, we see the rise of Euroberlin Franc in the late 1980s. This was a joint venture between Air France (51 percent) and Lufthansa (49 percent) since Lufthansa still wasn’t allowed in Berlin on its own. But when the wall fell and reunification came, Lufthansa jumped in and Euroberlin disappeared. Pan Am also disappeared in 1991, though that wasn’t just from Berlin… that was from the world entirely. When the fall fell, many airlines decided to try the market, ranging from other Western European airlines to more German carriers and even multiple US carriers. By 1992, only British Airways remained a notable player at the airport from the orginal days, and that wouldn’t last. Yes, BA would continue to fly to Berlin, but in 1992 it bought nearly half of Delta Air which became Deutsche BA. That was the number two airline in Berlin in short order, something which lasted until much later when Air Berlin rose and took over the then-rebranded DBA. The reunification of West and East Germany didn’t just impact Tegel. Remember, there were two other main airports. Tempelhof did close in 1975, but that was temporary. Scheduled flights were restarted in 1985 by Tempelhof Airways USA on a limited basis. After reunification, other airlines joined in as well, but it was primarily used by small commuters. In 2008, Tempelhof shut down for good and the land has been repurposed. Lastly, we had Schönefeld in East Berlin. This airport was far smaller than Tegel in the 1980s, and it was dominated by Interflug, the East German airline. But wait, how was that possible? Wouldn’t only Soviet airlines be allowed to serve an airport in East Berlin post-war? The trick was that Schönefeld was technically outside the Berlin city limits in East Germany, so while Lufthansa couldn’t serve any of the West Berlin airports, Interflug could serve this one. Berlin Schönefeld Annual Departures by Airline OAG schedule data via SkyGo In addition to Interflug, there was service from all the other airlines from countries behind the Iron Curtain. This included Aeroflot, of course, but also notable service from airlines in the Middle East, Africa, and yes, Cuba… very briefly. But while Tegel traffic surged after reunification, Schönefeld fell dramatically. This was primarily because no buyer for Interflug could be found to take it off the state’s hands, so it was shut down in 1991. Over time, Schönefeld became the base for the Ryanairs and easyJets of the world while Tegel remained the primary point of service for network airlines, including hometown-carrier Air Berlin which ultimately failed in 2017. Then, in 2020, the long-delayed Brandenburg airport opened on the southern end of the grounds of Schönefeld. The old Schönefeld terminal was officially shut down for good in 2022, but just consider that if you use the northern runway at Brandenburg, that was the same runway used by Interflug Il-62s long, long ago. When everything moved to Brandenburg, the decision was made to close down Tegel despite some protests. Tegel, like Tempelhof, is being redeveloped. The aviation scene in Berlin today is very tame with just a single airport filled mainly with easyJet, Ryanair, and Eurowings flights, but in the 1980s, it was a wildly-unique place that played a very important role in Pan Am’s network.