Pilots rate Zurich airport safer than Geneva and Basel

Zurich Airport is ahead of Geneva and Basel in terms of security Keystone-SDA

Zurich airport took third place for safety in a comparison of 31 German and Swiss airports.

Zurich was only surpassed by Leipzig and Munich. Geneva and Basel came in at 26th and 30th place respectively. Frankfurt, the largest airport that was assessed, ranked 14th overall while the relatively new capital city airport Berlin-Brandenburg came 15th. Lübeck in northern Germany took last place in the rankings.

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Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), the German pilots’ association, has been analysing and rating German airports according to international safety standards every year since 1978. This year, pilots from Aeropers, the professional pilot’s association of Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) and Edelweiss, were part of the project group for the first time, according to a press release issued by Aeropers on Wednesday.

There are daily incidents at airports around the world, ranging from minor incidents to serious accidents. Runway incursions, i.e. unauthorised access to runways, are a particular problem.

According to Aeropers, safety-related incidents can have serious consequences with numerous fatalities. This was demonstrated by the accident in Milan Linate in 2001, where over 100 people were killed when two aircraft collided close to the ground. At that time, guidance boards along the taxiways did not comply with the official guidelines.

Aeropers wants to continue the safety assessment of the three Swiss national airports of Zurich, Geneva and Basel on an annual basis and regularly take part in the airport check organised by the German Cockpit Association. The aim is to be able to guarantee safety standards from the pilots’ perspective.

Adapted from German by DeepL/ac

Correction July 24: a previous version of this article incorrectly stated the number of victims of the 2001 Milan Linate accident

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