Zurich Airport

Early years

In the Zürich area, mixed civil and military air traffic developed from 1909 onwards at Dübendorf airfield, northeast of the city. From 1919, the airport was home to Swissair's predecessor Ad Astra Aero, and from 1932 also to Swissair. The first international flight from Switzerland landed on July 21, 1921. In the early years of aviation, the Dübendorf Air Base, located some 8 km to the Zurich Airport, also served as the city's commercial airfield. The need for a dedicated commercial facility led to the search for a location at which to build a replacement airport.In 1939, civil air traffic had to be suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War for military strategic reasons. Although Swissair was allowed to resume scheduled air traffic in September 1940, this remained on a modest scale during the war.In March 1943, the government of the canton of Zürich commissioned a study to identify possible locations for the construction of a major airport. In its report, a consortium of engineers and architects led by Locher & Cie company advised against the previously discussed expansion options at Dübendorf airport and instead recommended a separate civil airport in the partially forested moorland area of the armory situated between Kloten and Oberglatt. In August 1943, the Federal Military Department declared its agreement to abandon the armory as a matter of principal "in the higher national interest".Locher & Cie submitted "Project I" to the Government on 31 December 1943. Four runways were planned and together with the buildings the required area was 472 hectares. Without the purchase of land, the project would have cost 87 million CHF. The government found the costs too high and ordered a revision. The "Project II" of 29 April 1944 still provided for an area of 290 hectares and costs of 65 million CHF, but the government council demanded a further reduction. For "Project III" of 31 July 1944, 54.4 million and 215 hectares were required. The project nevertheless met the requirements of an intercontinental airport. The Government formally approved it and submitted it to the Federal Government, strongly emphasizing that the Zurich project was "far superior" to the also planned Swiss Central Airport Utzenstorf near Bern.In December 1944, the responsible Federal Councillor, Enrico Celio, explicitly spoke out in favour of Zürich-Kloten, in a letter to his counterparts, as did the governments of the cantons of Eastern and Central Switzerland and Ticino a month later. The National Council and Council of States followed this view and on 22 June 1945 approved the "Federal Decree on the Expansion of Civil Airports". Basel, Bern and Geneva were to receive smaller continental airports and be supported with a 30 percent share of the costs. The Zurich project was granted the status of an intercontinental airport and the highest possible subsidy rate of 35 percent.Switzerland's federal parliament decided in 1945 that Zürich was to be the site of a major airport, and sold 655 hectares of the Kloten-Bülach Artillery Garrison to the canton of Zürich, giving the canton control of the new airfield. Construction of the airport began the following year.Initial plans for the airport, as laid out in the Federal government's scheme of 1945, were centered on facilities capable of handling international airline traffic. Aircraft of up to 80 tons were envisaged. The primary runway was to be designed for use in all weathers and at night, with a 400-metre -wide hard surface running to 3,000 metres in length. Additional 100-metre areas were to be provided on the shoulders for lateral protection in case of runway excursions. Additional domestic runways, between 1,000 and 1,400 metres in length, were also to be built.

First stage of construction: civil engineering

On 25 February 1946, the Cantonal Council approved a building loan of 36.8 million. The cantonal referendum of 5 May 1946 resulted in a clear approval with 105,705 votes in favour, 29,372 against.

"Project IV" never came to fruition, as it was further developed by adapting it to the ICAO standards which were changing rapidly at the time. Instead of four runways, the new "Project V" of 20 May 1946 provided only three. Project VI" of 9 October 1946 increased the dimensions of all three runways. Finally, the slightly modified "Project VII" of 20 December 1947 was realised.

Within three years, the design on the drawing board had completely changed from a purely grass airfield with a four-runway system without taxiways to a three-runway system with paved taxiways. The staggered design meant that it was possible to react to changes without having to impose a complete halt to construction.

Construction works finally began on 5 May 1946 with the diversion of the Altbach stream. The 1900 m long West Runway 10/28 was the first runway which was opened on 14 June 1948, and on which the first Swissair Douglas DC-4 took off for London. On behalf of the canton as airport owner, Cantonal Councillor Jakob Kägi gave a speech to mark the inauguration of the new runway and the start of provisional flight operations. Shortly after, on 17 November 1948, the 2600 m long blind runway 16/34 was opened for operation, which was attended by the seven members of the cantonal government. In the presence of invited guests from politics and the media as well as representatives of the construction companies and airlines, the new airport was inaugurated, which meant that the relocation of the entire civil flight operations from Dübendorf to Kloten had already been completed and full operation could begin at the new Zurich Airport.The 1535 m long Bisen runway 02/20, which belonged to the three-runway system of 1948, was of little importance. Due to the applicable crosswind regulations at that time, the runway was designed to face the Bise in order to guarantee the airport's all-weather capability. However, the ICAO increased the crosswind tolerances for aircraft in subsequent revisions to such an extent that the runway was decommissioned after just over ten years.

First stage of construction: structural engineering

The character of a provisional solution was supported - despite full operation - by the lack of buildings, especially the "Flughof", which had been planned since 1946. Instead, a growing shanty town stood to the east of the reserved building site. On 27 October 1948, the canton outsourced the development, construction and operation of the buildings to the newly founded "Flughafen-Immobilien-Gesellschaft" , a mixed-economy public limited company in which the public sector held half of the shares .

The FIG took over projects that had been started and was thus able to hand over the completed "shipyard I" to Swissair for use as early as late autumn 1948, followed by offices for Swissair's technical departments, which were finally able to leave Dübendorf by the end of April 1949. Further workshops, the striking arched hangar and the "Heating Centre I" for the heat supply were completed by the end of 1949.Based on "Project V", the terminal building had already been designed as a convex building at the airport head in mid-1946. In the following four years, a total of 24 feasible airport project designs were submitted, before the FIG commissioned the construction of the airport according to plans by Alfred and Heinrich Oeschger in November 1950. At the beginning of 1951, the piling work for the terminal building began, the construction work took about two years. With the opening on 9 April 1953, the shanty town could be abandoned. The new building consisted of a central passenger wing, flanked by a restaurant and an office wing. In addition there was a spectator terrace of 200m length.

The first years of operation

As had been expected the construction costs had been significantly exceeded. Several metres of raised bog were removed and backfilled with material from the Holberg; the concrete area had also increased from the originally planned 420,000 m2 to a good 611,000 m2. In addition, the former weapons range area had to be searched for unexploded bombs, of which a total of 157 were found. The costs for "Project IV", estimated at CHF 59.5 million in 1946, had risen to CHF 106 million by the time the civil engineering works under "Project VII" were completed in July 1949. Both chambers of the Federal Assembly concluded the political review with the "Federal Decree on the Payment of Additional Federal Contributions to the Construction of Zürich-Kloten Airport" of 29 September 1949. The Federation contributed CHF 27.1 million and doubled its contribution to the air traffic control facilities. For its part, the Cantonal Council granted a supplementary credit on 13 February 1950. This was accepted by the voters on 7 May 1950 with 73,551 votes to 59,088 .The new terminal opened in 1953 with a large air show that ran three days. In 1947, the airport handled 133,638 passengers on 12,766 airline flights; in 1952, 372,832 passengers on 24,728 airline flights.

Second stage of construction

Locher & Cie was commissioned in 1954 to design various project options for the second construction phase. In March 1956, the canton submitted an extended project to the Federal Council. In addition to mandatory runway extensions for the incipient "jet age", the project also provided for the extension of the public facilities, which were already overused and dominated by various provisional arrangements; two finger docks were to defuse the situation. On 12 October 1956, the Federal Council recommended that parliament approve the bill. On 19 December 1956, the Council of States approved the federal contribution of CHF 54.8 million , the National Council followed suit on 7 March 1957. The contribution of the canton of Zürich of CHF 74.3 million was still outstanding, the rest was to be raised by FIG and Swissair. The concrete expansion project included the extension of the blind runway to 4000 m and the western runway to 3150 m, as well as the extension of the buildings. Opponents described the "super airport Kloten" as a "luxury" and criticised that the canton had "lost every measure". Another issue that planners had completely neglected until then was the aircraft noise. With a high turnout of 72.3%, the expansion project failed in the cantonal referendum of 23 June 1957 with 97,603 votes to 83,196 .Just four days later, the Zürich's catonal government commissioned a redimensioned expansion project. The blind runway was to be only 3700 m long, the western runway 2500 m; the construction of the finger docks was abandoned. Thus the canton's share of the project to be approved was only CHF 49.1 million. The government gave far more attention to the aircraft noise. On 6 July 1958, voters approved the project by 107,050 votes to 56,872 , with a 65.6% share. Due to time pressure - the landing of the first jet aircraft was planned for the following year - construction work began without waiting for approval of the federal funding. In December 1958 and March 1959 respectively, the National Council and the Council of States granted subsidies of 55.6 million. In 1959, BOAC started regular flight connections to Zürich with the revised "Comet IV", while the airport was still a construction site.

The first buildings were completed in 1960, and the terminal building, which had been considered an attractive design, lost its symmetrical appearance. To the east, towards the former shanty town, office wing A1, office wing B and the air traffic control building were added with a connecting structure. The "Fracht West" building, which had been extended at short notice during construction to provide additional office space, was located somewhat off the main building. In the hangar area in the southwest, Heating Station II was put into operation and the Hangar II, which was designed for jet aircraft, was handed over to Swissair, shortly after the arrival of the Sud Aviation "Caravelle III" and the Douglas DC-8-32 in May 1960. Finally, in the summer of 1961, Swissair's in-flight catering service was given a new building between the head of the airport and the hangar area.

The canton of Zürich acquired a further 135 hectares of land for the expansion of the civil engineering works, which lasted until the beginning of 1961 in parallel with the construction of the buildings. The apron areas were enlarged, particularly at the airport head and in the hangar area; the pier was also extended from 16 to 28 aircraft parking spaces, and buses were purchased to provide access to them. The west runway 10/28 was extended by 600 metres to the west, towards Rümlang, and opened on 1 January 1961 with its new operating length of 2500 metres. Blind runway 16/34 was extended 400 metres to the south in the direction of Opfikon and 700 metres to the north in the direction of Oberglatt. At its new operating length of 3700 m, it was released on 15 March 1961. By the time work was completed, the paved area at the airport covered 1,013,000 m2.

Extension of the Terminal Building

Although virtually all the buildings of the second phase had been completed by the end of 1961, the extension of the terminal building was still at the design stage. After the passenger terminal with two finger docks had failed in the cantonal referendum, the FIG had worked out a new project until 1958. This envisaged a two-storey transverse hall on the landside of the airport, on the two main floors of which arriving and departing passengers were functionally separated. For cost reasons, the federal government demanded a considerable redimensioning, which led to an open dispute about the preferred design. When the conflict, described by the media as a "war of experts", threatened to escalate, President Willy Spühler invited representatives of the Federation and the cantons to a conference on 9 December 1963.During the conference, FIG's airport planners and the canton of Zürich prevailed against the federal government. The canton only had to make concessions for the commercial parts of the project, such as the restaurant wing. The dispatch of the Federal Council, submitted on 1 March 1965, requested a federal contribution of 23.1 million to the total costs of 129.4 million. Of this, 2.1 million was earmarked for the connection of the airport to the national road network and for the preparation of a connection to the planned Zürich underground railway. The National Council and Council of States adopted the bill in October 1965, allowing construction work to begin the following year. The motorway loop was in operation from 1968. Finally, with the opening of the last new hall wing on 1 April 1971, the extension of the terminal building was completed.The first signs of noise mitigation for the airport were in 1972, when a night-time curfew was enacted, as well as in 1974 when new approach routes were introduced. Runway 14/32 was opened in 1976, and 16/34 began renovation.

Attacks on El Al aircraft

On 18 February 1969, four armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine attacked El Al flight 432, firing Kalashnikov assault rifles at the Boeing 720B whilst it prepared for takeoff. The Shin Bet employee Mordechai Rachamim fired back with his pistol and killed the terrorist Abdel Mohsen Hassan. The three remaining assassins were each sentenced to twelve years in prison. The aircraft's co-pilot subsequently died of his injuries.The attack marked the beginning of a discussion about airport security that had never been raised until then in Switzerland. On 21 February 1970 a parcel bomb exploded in Swissair's Convair CV-990 on flight SR330 . In the crash near Würenlingen all 47 people on board were killed. Investigations revealed that a PFLP terrorist group had carried out the bomb attack. The actual target, however, had been an El Al flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, whose mail had been sent with Swissair to Zürich due to long delays. In 1970 the PFLP obtained the release of the three terrorists convicted in Switzerland and other comrades-in-arms imprisoned abroad through coordinated hijackings. Flights affected were SR 100 , TWA flight TW741, Pan Am flight PA93 and BOAC flight BA775.

Third stage of construction

In January 1969, the Zürich's Cantonal Council approved a loan for preparatory work for the third stage of expansion. The project that was subsequently drawn up clearly exceeded the previous dimensions. The plans included the extension of the existing runways, a 3300 m long runway, additional taxiways, the enlargement of the pier to 47 stands, a new terminal with finger dock, two multi-storey car parks, additional technical buildings, an airport railway station and a new hangar. In addition, there were various extensions and conversions of existing buildings. The costs were estimated at CHF 777.6 million . Since this project was hardly different from the "super airport" rejected in 1957, criticism was immediately voiced again by the "Protection Association of the Population around Zurich Airport" and the community of Höri, which was located directly in the approach corridor. The SBFZ even demanded the resumption of the central airport concept that was dropped in 1945 - instead of Utzenstorf this time in the "Grosse Moos", with two runways jutting into Lake Neuchâtel.The supporters of the Zurich airport expansion argued primarily with the economic benefit. In order to take the wind out of the sails of aircraft noise criticism, the government and cantonal council are drafting an aircraft noise law , which should be submitted to a referendum at the same time as the expansion bill. After the Cantonal Council had approved both bills in July 1970, the referendum was held on 27 September 1970. The proposal for expansion was approved by 103,867 votes to 64,192 , the Aircraft Noise Act by 134,501 votes to 32,590 . The following year, the Federal Assembly approved a federal contribution of 240.3 million. Construction work on the third stage also began in 1971. In 1973, Hangar III, Cargo Hall East, Car Park F and the General Aviation Centre were completed. In 1974 the "Werkhof" , an office building and multistorey car park E were added, in 1975 the apron, multi-storey car park B and Terminal B with finger dock, and in 1976 the Airport Plaza shopping and service centre located in multi-storey car park B.Additional costs were incurred due to numerous adjustments to the construction project. The additional credit of 25.8 million was accepted by Zurich voters on 7 December 1975 with 178,723 to 87,303 votes . The canton supplemented this credit with ordinary and extraordinary budget credits from the building department. In March 1976 the Federal Assembly approved an additional federal contribution of 39.7 million.

As the centrepiece of the third stage, runway 14/32 was opened on 1 April 1976, increasing capacity by a third. In the early days, the new runway served exclusively for landing traffic. The rail link, which had been approved by parliament in 1975 in a separate federal decree, was still outstanding. As this was a project of the Swiss Federal Railways , the cost allocation differed greatly. Of the total costs of 285 million, the SBB contributed 60%, the Federation 33% and the canton of Zürich 7%. The project comprised the Zürich Flughafen railway station under Terminal B and a new line between Bassersdorf and Glattbrugg. After nine years of construction, the ceremonial opening of the airport line took place on 29 May 1980.

Fourth stage of construction

In the second half of the 1970s, the volume of traffic continued to rise sharply, so the canton of Zürich, the FIG and Swissair worked out a project for the fourth construction phase. On 28 September 1980, with 142,240 to 104,775 votes , Zürich voters accepted a loan of CHF 48 million for civil engineering works, which were part of the forthcoming construction work.Also in 1980, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation published a new airport concept, which replaced that of 1945. The focus was now on qualitative expansion, taking into account spatial planning and environmental protection considerations.Based on this concept, the Federal Assembly approved the "Building Programme 1981-1985". This programme provided for investments of CHF 393.3 million in Zürich-Kloten, but the subsidy contribution of 10.3% was significantly lower than for the Geneva and Basel-Mulhouse airports. This was justified by the catch-up demand of the two other major Swiss airports.

The central element of the fourth stage was the finger dock in Terminal A with 13 docking positions. Also planned were a new control tower, a baggage sorting system, an additional multi-storey car park, waiting rooms and an operations centre for aircraft crews. Later, Zürich's cantonal government also decided to renew the damaged western runway, which had to be closed for two and a half months in the summer of 1985 for this purpose. Fingerdock A was put into operation on 1 November 1985, the new 41 m high control tower on 29 April 1986.

There were also plans to expand the airport's cargo facilities. However, a corresponding loan of CHF 57 million was narrowly rejected in the referendum of 6 September 1987 by 106,722 to 98,663 votes .

The project, which was subsequently revised and approved by Zürich's Cantonal Council in 1989, focused on more efficient use of the existing facilities, thereby enabling the handling of an additional 100,000 tonnes of freight annually.

Fifth stage of construction

The cantonal popular initiative "for moderate air traffic" submitted in January 1991 intended to limit the airport to its then status, i.e. neither to allow more aircraft movements nor to expand the infrastructure. In the vote of 26 September 1993, however, it did not stand a chance and was clearly rejected by 235,531 votes to 112,476 .

Nine months later, Zürich's cantonal government submitted a proposal for a loan of CHF 873 million to the cantonal council. The fifth construction phase, known as "Airport 2000" and costing a total of CHF 2.4 billion, was intended to replace outdated systems and further expand existing facilities. At the heart of the project was the construction of a third terminal, Dock E "Midfield", located between the three runways. The Skymetro aerial tramway, a road tunnel and underground baggage conveyors were necessary for its development. Also part of the fifth stage was the construction of the new passenger hub "Airside Center". The Cantonal Council approved the project at the end of February 1995.

It cleared the last hurdle in the referendum of 25 June 1995, when it was approved by 224,668 votes to 105,859 .

After almost nine years of construction, the project was completed in 2004.

"Zürich 2010" project

The next major event for the airport was in 1999, when the Parliament of the canton of Zürich approved privatization of Zurich Airport. The following year, Flughafen Zürich AG, trading under the brand Unique, became the new airport operator. The company dropped the brand Unique in favour of Zurich Airport and Flughafen Zürich in 2010.On 2 October 2001, a major cash-flow crisis at Swissair, exacerbated by the global downturn in air travel caused by the September 11 attacks, caused the airline to ground all its flights. Although a government rescue plan permitted some flights to restart a few days later, and the airline's assets were subsequently sold to become Swiss International Air Lines, the airport lost a large volume of traffic. After Lufthansa took control of Swiss International Air Lines in 2005, traffic began to grow again.

On 18 October 2001, Germany and Switzerland signed a treaty regarding the limitation of flights over Germany. Under the terms of this treaty, any incoming aircraft after 22:00 had to approach Zürich from the east to land on runway 28, which, unlike the airport's other runways, was not equipped with an instrument landing system. A month later, at 22:06 on 24 November, an inbound Crossair Avro RJ100 using this approach in conditions of poor visibility crashed into a range of hills near Bassersdorf and exploded, killing 24 of the 33 people on board. The flight had originally been scheduled to land on runway 14 before 22:00, but it was subject to delay and was therefore diverted to runway 28.Zurich Airport completed a major expansion project in 2003, in which it built a new parking garage, a new midfield terminal, and an automated underground people mover to link the midfield terminal to the main terminal. In November 2008 a complete renovation and rebuild of the old terminal B structure was announced. The new terminal B opened in November 2011, and provides segregated access to and from aircraft for Schengen and non-Schengen passengers. Zurich Airport handled 25.5 million passengers in 2014, up 2.5 percent from 2013.Etihad Regional ceased on 18 February 2015 to fly two-thirds of its scheduled routes without further notice, amongst them all its services from Zürich except the domestic service to Geneva. Etihad Regional blamed the failure of its expansion on the behavior of competitors, especially Swiss International Air Lines, as well as the Swiss aviation authorities.Following the demolition of some office buildings the construction of the new baggage sorting facilities between the Operations Center and Terminal 1 began in spring 2018 with a total investment of CHF 500 million.

As of 2020, the marketing of all advertising space at the airport was transferred from Clear Channel to APG.The main Terminal 1 will be completely rebuilt - including the tower of the Skyguide Air Traffic Control. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2021, with completion expected in 2030. In addition to the old building fabric, the expected growth in passenger numbers is the main reason for the pending construction work. "The forecasts suggest that the number of passengers arriving, departing or transferring at Zurich Airport each year today will grow from 29 million today to 50 million by 2030," says the airport operator's personnel booklet.