The lifting came after a series of signals. In late April 1949, the Soviet news agency Tass indicated that the Soviet Union might be willing to lift the blockade under certain conditions. Negotiations between American and Soviet representatives took place at the United Nations and directly between the powers. Agreement was reached on May 4, with the blockade to be lifted on May 12. The basic formula was that road, rail, and water routes to West Berlin would be reopened, and in return the Western powers would agree to a Council of Foreign Ministers meeting to discuss the German question.
The airlift did not stop immediately. The Western powers recognized that the Soviets might re-impose the blockade, and they maintained airlift operations as a precaution while also replenishing Berlin’s stockpiles beyond the minimum. The American airlift’s last flight was on September 30, 1949. The last RAF flight was on October 6, 1949. By the time the airlift fully ended, its operational machinery had been running for fifteen months.
Operation Little Vittles had ended on May 13, 1949, one day after the blockade was lifted. Captain Caskey, who had been running the drops since Halvorsen’s departure in January, completed the final drops as the blockade ended. The timing meant that the last candy parachutes fell on Berlin on a day when trucks and trains were again moving through the land routes that the Soviets had closed nearly a year before.
The total count at the airlift’s end: approximately 277,500 flights, delivering close to 2.3 million tons of supplies. The American contribution was approximately three-quarters of the total. The British contribution was approximately one-quarter. The French contribution was smaller but included the airport that made the operation’s final capacity possible.