This one hits deep. Right in the feels.
It’s not just a capsule for us. It’s a farewell letter, a love song, and a wink to those who still remember what it felt like to take off from Tegel.
Because Airberlin wasn’t just an airline.
It was Berlin.
The airline that never really left
Ask anyone who grew up here, who flew home for Christmas or left Berlin for a weekend away, that red tail with the white logo was always there. On postcards. In the skies. In our memories.
Founded in 1978, back when walls and hopes still surrounded West Berlin, Airberlin started small, just a few charter flights for the city’s trapped islanders. But somehow, it grew into something much bigger. It became part of our lives. The sound of suitcase wheels on Tegel’s tiles, the smell of jet fuel mixed with bakery coffee at Gate A07, and the announcement we all knew by heart: “Willkommen bei Airberlin.”
The voice that came through the speakers wasn’t just friendly, it was familiar. A Berlin kind of familiar. A little rushed, a little rough, but warm underneath it all.
When the airline finally touched down for the last time on October 27, 2017, at 23:46, it wasn’t just a plane landing. It was an era ending.
Flight AB6210 from Munich to Berlin. An Airbus A320. The final arrival at Tegel. The last red logo taxiing across that runway, greeted by water cannons, cameras, and a crowd that couldn’t believe it was really over.
We remember watching that moment, some of us in person, others later on YouTube, eyes glued to the flashing lights and the slow, final roll into the gate. That wasn’t just an airline saying goodbye. It was Berlin waving to itself in the mirror.
Why this capsule matters
We knew we had to do something.
Because Airberlin wasn’t just about flying, it was about feeling.
We made this capsule to keep that feeling alive. To remember that time when Tegel was more than an airport. When catching a flight meant running up spiral stairs, crossing those open-air bridges, and hearing your boarding call echo through hexagonal halls that felt like home.
Our Airberlin Forever capsule is about memory.
A T-shirt, a crewneck, a tote bag, and three posters that capture everything we miss about that time.
The red that still pops in our minds. The typography that once meant “departure.” The sense of connection that somehow made Berlin, a city so good at goodbyes, feel like it was always waiting for you to come home.
TXL: A city within the city
If you ever flew through Tegel, you know it wasn’t like any other airport.
You could get from taxi to gate in under ten minutes. Your friends could wait just meters from the plane door. Everything about it screamed Berlin logic, compact, efficient, slightly chaotic, but always personal.
We’ve been back since it closed, for events like Khisdapaze’s open-air rave or exhibitions that reclaim the space for what Berlin does best, transformation.
The smell of concrete, the wide runways, the empty terminals, they still hold stories.
Standing there today, you can almost hear the announcements again. You can imagine the red tail of an Airberlin A320 against the evening sky, engines humming, lights reflecting off glass panels that once framed millions of hellos and goodbyes.
And that’s what we wanted to freeze in time.
That second before takeoff. That hum of possibility.
From playlist to print
When we were designing this capsule, we went down every Airberlin rabbit hole we could find. We rewatched the old documentaries, the “last flight” broadcasts, the fan videos with people crying at the terminal gates.
We even had Pashanim’s “Airberlin” track looping in the background.
We listened to the last onboard announcement from flight AB6210.
The captain’s voice breaking slightly as he thanked passengers for their loyalty. The applause from the cabin. The sound of landing gear retracting one final time.
Those are the kinds of moments you can’t recreate, but you can honor them.
Berlin remembers differently
If you’ve ever been to Berlin, you know we don’t do nostalgia softly. We graffiti our memories. We rebuild them. We remix them.
That’s why Airberlin Forever isn’t about loss, it’s about legacy.
We’re not looking back to cry. We’re looking back to remember who we were and how far we’ve come.
TXL might now be part of the Urban Tech Republic, a place for innovation and progress, but for many of us, it will always be a place where stories took off. Where Berliners waved from the window seats of AB flights, headphones on, city still glowing below.
It’s been eight years since that final landing. And yet, somehow, it still feels like yesterday.
A note from us
We’ve always said that MEAN BERLIN isn’t about trends, it’s about stories.
The Currywurst capsule told one side of Berlin, the taste, the grit, the humor.
Airberlin Forever tells another, the distance, the motion, the memory.
For us, these pieces are a way of saying thank you.
To the airline that carried a city.
To the airport that defined an era.
And to everyone who still looks up when a plane crosses the Berlin sky and thinks, “Could be Airberlin.”
Final Boarding Call
The last Airberlin flight landed on October 27, 2017, at 23:46.
Tonight, we release this capsule on the exact same date October 27, 2025.
Because some stories deserve to land again.
Airberlin Forever.
For those who remember.
ALLES GUTE! BIS DEMNÄCHST, IRGENDWO!
