A view of the construction site in March 1947.
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Plenty of trees had to be cleared before construction could start.
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Installing a large pipe for collecting water, August 1946.
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Taking a welcome water break on the construction site.
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The first large buildings begin to be constructed, September 1948.
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Searching for potential unexploded shells, 1946 – the site of the airport had previously served as a shooting range.
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Steamrolling a smooth and flat runway, 1947.
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Inspecting the first runway, March 1947.
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The official inauguration of the airport.
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It’s exactly 70 years since the first flight took off from the brand new tarmac of Zurich Airport. We take a look back at the development of what has since become the biggest airport in Switzerland.
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Specialist in federal politics. Earlier worked at the Swiss national news agency and at Radio Fribourg.
On June 14, 1948, a ceremony took place at Zurich-Kloten airport, with speeches made on the tarmac in front of a “Swiss Air Lines”-branded plane. The reason? The official opening of the airport’s first runway, a 1,900-metre long track that had taken two years to build.
And though it was a modestly sized airport at the time of construction, Zurich was progressively expanded over the next decades. Now it is the biggest in the country, far outstripping nearest rival Geneva.
The figures speak for themselves: last month, 2.71 million passengers passed through the airport (about two million who were landing or taking off from Zurich, the rest in transit). In the same month, the airport registered 24,463 flights and processed over 40,000 tonnes of merchandise.
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Thomas Klühr, the head of the Lufthansa-Group-owned Swiss National Airlines SWISS, told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper that developments such as the bankruptcy of German carrier Air Berlin have led to increased demand for certain European routes. As a result, Swiss has seen a profitable 2017 and increased its offering, including a new flight on…
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The pilot decided to make a scenic detour while in a holding pattern over Zurich airport until it was the plane’s turn to land. “Let me show you the best of Switzerland,” he said over the loudspeakers, according to passenger Lars Jensen. The unexpected in-flight menu: the Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, the Matterhorn and the Aletsch Glacier. “Pilots…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.