“That's so big it can't possibly fly!” says Antonia, my girlfriend. She can be so negative sometimes. But this time she's quite wrong because not long after, the Airbus A380 takes off from the runway. We are at the Berlin Air Show, the ILA, the sun is shining and we are craning our necks and stretching our arms to take a photo over the heads of all the many people with our mobile camera.

Antonia was visibly impressed. “That's impossible,” she says. “No, it isn't,” I reply, mentioning that the “Airboss” (that's my nickname for it) weighs 560 tons. And, not at all the know-all, I add, “A ton, that's 1,000 kilos, by the way.”

Antonia asks, I answer. That's the way I like it. I show her everything there is to be seen at the ILA, from the single-engine ultralight aeroplane to modern helicopters.

And not just that. To finish with, we pay a visit to the new visitors' pavilion at the foot of the Infotower integrated into the ILA site, where there's an exhibition showing the ABC of the new capital city airport BBI

“Any more questions?” Perhaps I do sound just a teensy bit supercilious, after all. “Yes,” says Antonia, “tell me how many ants actually fit inside the Airbus A380!” My smile freezes. “Erm,” I stammer. Meekly, I have to admit that I don't know.

Wersja drukowana berlin-airport.de (Copyright Berliner Flughäfen)