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(CNN) -- With European skies as busy as ever and air travel predicted to rise in the years ahead, news that one of the region's airports will close is not being taken lightly.
Berlin's cash-strapped authorities have decided to shut down the city's oldest airport, Tempelhof -- a decision that has been met with both defiance and regret.
Its largest operator, SN Brussels Airlines, still believes the airport has "strong potential" despite being heavily subsidized. The airline has been flying out of Tempelhof for 81 years.
According to German newspapers, 10 other carriers using the airport also plan to confront the city over its decision to stop flights by the end of October.
"Every year we lose about 15 million ($18 million) here in Tempelhof. It is a big black hole for us," Burkhard Kieker of Berlin's airport company told CNN.
"It is much easier to give every passenger 100 and say go to Tegel or another airport. It is cheaper than to have a flying operation here."
The airport is the closest of the city's three international airports to central Berlin and is now used mainly by smaller airlines for short-haul commuter flights. The capital's main airport, Tegel, is the busiest.
The announcement of Tempelhof's closure comes at a time when former East Berlin's Schoenefeld airport, southeast of the city, is being rebuilt as the capital's new hub. It will be renamed Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport.
"Nevertheless, it is totally premature to close Tempelhof while this new system is not yet in place and while strong demand exists for flights to and from Tempelhof," said SN Brussels in a statement.
The airlines could win a temporary reprieve for the airport, but this may not save it from permanent closure.
Local civil aviation trade unions also plan to take legal measures over the redundancies that will occur.
Mounting competition from both Tegel and Schoenefeld since the 1990s has seen passenger numbers decline at the central city airport.
"In economic terms it is difficult to judge (the effects of the closure). ... On the other hand there are a lot of firms which use the airport," says Dieter Vesper of the German Institute for Economic Research.
Tempelhof was made world-famous by the Berlin airlift of 1948 when the Soviets blockaded West Berlin. It went into service in 1923.
