Editing Interflug (section)

===Flights to Western countries===
[[File:Berlin-wall-map en.svg|thumb|right|A map showing the border crossings between West and East Berlin. The checkpoint at ''Waltersdorfer Chaussee'' could only be used by West Germans travelling to and from nearby Schönefeld Airport (click to enlarge).]]
As an East German state-owned company, Interflug had the important role of securing foreign currency reserves, as the [[East German mark]] was considered a [[Hard currency|weak currency]]. For most of its existence, Interflug was not a member of the [[International Air Transport Association]] (IATA), and could therefore significantly undercut the ticket prices of other European carriers.<ref name="spiegel81"/> From the 1970s, more effort was put into operating chartered flights to [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] and [[Black Sea]] holiday resorts, many of which specifically catered to West Germans (travel restrictions applied to East Germans). Starting in that period, Interflug gained traffic rights to several destinations in Western Europe.<ref name="spiegel72"/> All these flights could be booked at travel agencies in West Berlin and West Germany, which had signed sale contracts with Interflug. To simplify the transfer of passengers from West Berlin to and from Schönefeld Airport, a dedicated border crossing checkpoint was inaugurated at ''Waltersdorfer Chaussee'', and scheduled shuttle buses were operated from the Central Bus Terminal in the [[Westend (Berlin)|Westend]] locality.<ref name="spiegel81"/>

By the early 1980s, low Interflug ticket prices led to a severe decline in holiday flights at [[Berlin Tegel Airport]] in West Berlin. Pilots at [[Pan Am]], which had a hub at Tegel, reportedly considered operating flights to Greece without pay to allow the airline to compete with Interflug.<ref name="spiegel81"/>

Interflug signed an agreement with [[Turkish Airlines]] giving the two airlines exclusive rights to offer dedicated flights for Turkish ''[[Gastarbeiter]]'' to and from West Germany and West Berlin.<ref name="tsp"/> In the 1980s, Interflug set up a partnership with [[KLM]] for a joint operation on the East Berlin-[[Amsterdam]] route. Of the six weekly flights, two were operated by KLM's [[Fokker F28 Fellowship]]s, and four by Interflug's Tu-134s and Il-62s. As neither airline was allowed to cross the intra-German border,{{refn|The three [[West Berlin Air Corridor|air corridors]] crossing the border between East and West Germany could only be used by airlines of the [[Western Bloc|Western Allies]] (the United States, United Kingdom, and France) and by [[LOT Polish Airlines]].|group=note}} the KLM flights were routed via [[Denmark]], and Interflug used a southern routing over [[Czechoslovakia]].<ref name=spiegeljan86>{{cite journal|title=Dumm Da|journal=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=13 January 1986|pages=30–31|url=http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=13516240&aref=image036/2006/06/12/cq-sp198600300300031.pdf&thumb=false|access-date=19 September 2013|language=de|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131212012033/http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=13516240&aref=image036%2F2006%2F06%2F12%2Fcq-sp198600300300031.pdf&thumb=false|archive-date=12 December 2013}}</ref>

During the annual [[Leipzig Trade Fair]], at that time considered the most important meeting place for businesspeople and politicians from both sides of the [[Iron Curtain]], Lufthansa and Interflug were granted special permits to operate flights between [[Leipzig]] and West Germany. In 1986, Lufthansa and Interflug applied for joint traffic rights for year-round scheduled intra-German flights over the Iron Curtain, which were initially rejected by the [[Western Bloc|Western Allies]] (likely due to concerns that their unique market position for flights to and from Berlin might be weakened),<ref>{{cite journal|title=Wirklich absurd|journal=[[Der Spiegel]]|date=17 March 1986|page=59|url=http://wissen.spiegel.de/wissen/image/show.html?did=13518082&aref=image036/2006/06/12/cq-sp198601200590059.pdf&thumb=false|access-date=19 September 2013|language=de}}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and only granted in August 1989. Interflug was then able to launch flights on the Leipzig-[[Düsseldorf]] route, while Lufthansa began serving the [[Frankfurt]]-Leipzig leg.<ref name="faz"/> In 1990, Interflug added flights from [[Dresden]] to [[Hamburg]] and [[Cologne]].<ref name="nytSep90"/>