Federal Court announces new deadline in airport row

Building work at Zurich's Kloten has closed the west runway Keystone

The Swiss Federal Court has given all parties involved in the legal dispute over of the expansion of Zurich's Kloten airport until June 28 to submit new written arguments.

The judge in charge of the case, Heinz Aemisegger, said recent decisions by the German and Swiss governments had created a new state of affairs in the legal dispute. He said Germany’s decision to tear up an agreement with Switzerland governing flights to and from Kloten, and the Swiss government’s approval of an increase in the minimum noise level allowed at airports, had created a new set of issues which needed to be addressed.

All sides involved in the dispute had the chance on May 25 to present their arguments in an open debate before the Federal Court in Lausanne. At those hearings, opponents stressed that recent developments had altered the legal parameters in the case.

Aemisegger made it clear that there would be no extension to the new deadline, and the court would decide how to proceed in the dispute after the submission of the arguments.

In May, the German government gave one year’s notice for the cancellation of an agreement, which regulates in and outgoing flights after complaints from German towns lying in Kloten airport’s flight path.

Last year, the transport ministry gave the go-ahead for plans to upgrade Kloten airport, by constructing a new docking bay for more than 20 aircraft.

swissinfo with agencies