ZURICH AIRPORT ASSISTANCE

History of Zurich Airport

In the Zürich area, mixed civil and military air traffic developed from 1909 onwards at Dübendorf airfield, northeast of the city. From 1919 to 1932, the airport was home to Swissair and its predecessor, Ad Astra Aero. The first flight crossing the Alps was on July 21, 1921. The first regular international flight service began on June 1, 1922, with an Ad Astra route to Fürth, near Nürnberg in Germany. In the early years of aviation, the Dübendorf Air Base, located some 8 kilometers (5.0 miles) from 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 December 1944, the responsible Federal Councillor, Enrico Celio, explicitly spoke out in favor 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 June 22, 1945, they 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 (1,620 acres) of the Kloten-Bülach Artillery Garrison (German: Artillerie-Waffenplatz Kloten-Bülach) 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, 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-meter (1,300 ft)-wide hard surface running to 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) in length. Additional 100-meter (330-foot) 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 meters (3,300 and 4,600 feet) in length, were also to be built.

Ground Transportation Zürich Airport

• Train: The Zürich Flughafen railway station is located underneath the Airport Center. The station has frequent Zürich S-Bahn services, plus direct InterRegio, InterCity, and Eurocity services to many places, including Basel, Bern, Biel/Bienne, Brig, Geneva, Konstanz, Lausanne, Lucerne, Munich, Romanshorn, St. Gallen, and Winterthur. There are some 13 trains per hour to Zürich HB (Hauptbahnhof), Zürich's main city center station, with a journey time of between 9 and 13 minutes. By changing trains there, most other places in Switzerland can be reached in a few hours.
• Bus and tram: In front of the Airport Center is the airport stop of the Stadtbahn Glattal, a light rail system that works with the Zürich tram system, together with a regional bus station. Both the bus station and light rail stop provide service to destinations throughout the Glattal region that surrounds the airport, with the light rail stop being served by tram routes 10 and 12. Tram route 10 also provides a link to Zürich Hauptbahnhof, albeit with a rather longer journey time than that of the railway.
• Road: The airport is served by the A51 motorway and other main roads, which link to the airport's own road network. Drop-off areas are available by the airport center, while a total of over 14000 spaces are available in six car parks for short and long-term parking. A car-hire center is located in the terminal complex. The airport is served by a fleet of dedicated airport taxis, which operate from taxi ranks in front of the arrival areas. Alternative chauffeur driven airport limousines can be arranged. The airport can legally be reached by bicycle on a regional highway (Flughafenstrasse and Birchstrasse) that branches off national highway 4 (Schaffhausen - Bülach - Zürich - Luzern) just east of the airport and reaches Northwestern Zürich.

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