Berlin Tegel Airport and early morning outbound flight, which included a night stop for both aircraft and crew in Berlin. To improve capacity utilisation on its Berlin services and cut down on aircraft parking as well as crew accommodation costs, from 1 April 1974, Air France routed both of its daily Orly–Tegel services via Cologne, with aircraft and crew returning to their base at Paris Orly the same day. From 1 November that year, Air France's Berlin flights switched to the French capital's then new Charles de Gaulle (CDG) Airport. The arrival at Berlin Tegel of an Air France Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde on 17
Berlin Tegel Airport a consequence, the French military authorities in charge of Tegel at that time ordered the construction of a long runway, the longest in Europe at the time, as well as provisional airport buildings and basic infrastructure. Groundbreaking took place on 5 August 1948, and only 90 days later, on 5 November, a United States Air Force (USAF) Douglas C-54 Skymaster became the first aircraft to land at the new airport. The United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) commander-in-chief, General Cannon, and the chief-of-staff of the Anglo-American airlift, General Tunner, arrived at Tegel on this aircraft. British Dakota and Hastings