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Berlin is different from other European capitals in that it is the political and cultural center of the country, but not economically. It is also surrounded by
by shaki-dora 7y ago
Berlin is different from other European capitals in that it is the political and cultural center of the country, but not economically. It is also surrounded by low-density countryside, and located nowhere close to the geographic middle of the country.
As a result, air traffic is somewhat low with about 33 million passenger p.a. Heathrow alone gets almost three times as much.
The reason for having two (and, previously, three) smaller airports instead of a single, large one are obviously historical: both East and West Berlin each needed their own. In those times, traffic was even lower because few people in the East ever got to fly, West Berlin had basically no industry or business that was not exclusively local, and the population of West Berlin tended to be somewhat poorer as well.
- thinkindie 7y agoBerlin is not the only case of the political center of a country but not economically: see Milan vs Rome, Barcelona vs Madrid, New York/San Francisco/etc vs Washington
- FabHK 7y agoSydney vs Canberra, Zurich vs Bern, Amsterdam vs The Hague, Istanbul vs Ankara, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) vs Hanoi, São Paulo vs Brasilia, Ottawa vs Toronto, Beijing vs Shanghai, New Delhi vs Mumbai, Wellington vs Auckland, ...
- fyfy18 7y agoRome has the same problems with Ciampino airport. It's exclusively used for budget airlines, and although it's closer to the city center there is no public transit link. You can either take the privately run air coach which takes forever (if the bus departs on time it should take 40 minutes, but late at night or early morning it's usually late taking double that or more) or cough up for a taxi and hope they don't rip you off (the fixed price only applies within the historic city walls, if you are going outside they will charge you more, even if it's less distance). When I was living there I'd always try to fly to Fiumicino because of that. I can't imagine what impression it must give to tourists on their first trip to the city.