The death of domestic aviation

Photo by Rocker Sta on Unsplash

Dear Reader,

When I first met my future wife, we had a long-distance relationship, shuttling between Berlin and Munich. Every couple of weeks after work, I’d head to Schönefeld, Berlin’s rickety old GDR-era airport, board a city hopper to the Bavarian capital, then take the S-Bahn into the city. If everything went to plan (as it tended to back then) the journey was over in under four hours.

A few days later, I’d take the red-eye back to Berlin and still make it to the office on time.

Nine years later, any young couples who have fallen in love between Germany’s capital and its richest city are unlikely to fall into each other’s arms in the arrivals hall of an airport. I recently unearthed an old booking confirmation. For a journey in November 2016, I paid €93 return with budget carrier Transavia for a ticket booked two weeks in advance.

Transavia has long ceased operations on the route and no budget carrier has stepped in to replace it. The only airline opera…