Air
Zurich Airport is one of the most important transport hubs in Europe. Passengers appreciate the excellent standard of service at this airport. This is confirmed by its high ranking in the annual Airport Service Quality (ASQ) Awards. Zurich is ranked in first place ahead of Southampton (England) and Oporto (Portugal) airports. From a global perspective, Zurich is in second place behind Taipei and ahead of San Diego in the category of airports with 15 to 25 million passengers. Around 22 million passengers used the airport in 2008. The freight volume in the same period totalled 387,671 metric tons. The airport currently serves 151 destinations on four continents and 63 countries. Most of the flights (77%) connect Switzerland with Europe, while 23% are intercontinental flights. The intercontinental flights connect Zurich with 45 cities in 28 countries around the globe.
The two other international airports in Switzerland – Geneva and Euro-Airport Basel – also have a large number of connections to the key European business centres and a number of direct flights to overseas destinations. Geneva handled 11.5 million passengers and 48,894 metric tons of freight in 2008. The corresponding figures for Basel were 4.2 million passengers and 38,786 metric tons of freight.
The fact that the three international airports are located in border areas only a short distance away from neighbouring countries facilitates international trade to and from the EU area through Switzerland. Air freight is an important freight transport option for exporting companies in these regions. The most important export products include specialty chemical and pharmaceutical products, high-tech products, automotive components and perishable goods. Three-quarters of Swiss airfreight is processed at the cargo hub in Zurich. But the two other international airports, Geneva and Euro-Airport Basel, are also becoming increasingly important freight support points, particularly for express and courier services. The world’s leading express, package and courier services have posted steady growth in volume.
The Berne, Lugano and St. Gallen-Altenrhein regional airports also offer attractive scheduled flights to European destinations on a daily basis. Sion and St. Moritz-Samedan have seasonal business connections that are not only important for tourism but save time for the entire service sector.
Direct air connections
Intercontinental from Zurich (ZRH) and Geneva (GVA), 2009,
on at least five days per week; in prackets (): Airport: number of flights daily; flight duration
For international corporations, the ability to schedule business flights at short notice on company-owned or pooled business jets is becoming more and more critical. In addition to the national airports, there are also regional airports throughout the country which have been set up to handle business aviation, and most of them are suitable for smaller jets. The modern infrastructure of these airports is designed for business travellers, offering either customs clearance or allowing authorized cross-border travel by persons from the areas covered by the Schengen Agreement (the Schengen Area).
National and regional airports in Switzerland
Source: Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA)