Switzerland wins reprieve over flight limits

Moritz Leuenberger, (left) with his German counterpart, Manfred Stolpe Keystone

The Swiss transport minister, Moritz Leuenberger, has managed to stave off tough new restrictions on flights into Zurich airport due to come into force next month.

Germany agreed on Thursday to delay imposing additional limits on flights over its territory until the end of October.

The breakthrough in negotiations between the two neighbours came after two days of talks in Bonn between Leuenberger and his German counterpart, Manfred Stolpe.

The delay gives Switzerland time to meet technical requirements that will allow planes to fly into Zurich from the south. It also offers some breathing space to the national carrier, Swiss.

“We avoided the premature death of Swiss and Zurich airport,” Leuenberger said at a press conference in Bern on Thursday.

The transport minister added that Germany had no intention of pushing the airline or the airport to the brink.

Leuenberger stressed earlier that the problem of “sharing” noise pollution remained and he warned that mistrust between the neighbouring regions would only have negative consequences.

“We are not ready to restart negotiations,” said the Swiss minister. “We have to re-establish confidence first.”

Breakthrough

The Swiss transport minister said the breakthrough in discussions followed Switzerland’s decision this week to allow flights to land at Zurich airport from the south.

In April, Berlin banned flights over parts of southern Germany – the main approach to Zurich airport – between 9 pm and 7am.

The restrictions followed Bern’s refusal in March to ratify an aviation accord with Germany aimed at reducing noise pollution.

New restrictions, which had been due to come into force on July 10, would have strengthened the measures already in effect.

Any “out of hours” flights would have only been given permission to land from the north in poor visibility. As a result, flights would have been forced to redirect to Geneva or Basel.

“This [the measures] would have had grave consequences for the airport and above all for Swiss, which is already in serious trouble,” said the Federal Office for Transport in a statement.

The Swiss business community reacted with relief to the decision. “Implementing these measures now would have put Swiss at a terrible disadvantage,” said Peter Hutzli of the Swiss Business Federation, economiesuisse.

Hutzli added that foreign airlines could have been tempted to send their planes to other European destinations rather than risk landing at Zurich.

Southern approach

It will also give Switzerland time to install landing technology allowing planes to use the southern approach to Zurich airport.

Under the terms of Thursday’s agreement, Zurich airport will give up two out of its three holding patterns over southern Germany from 2005.

Germany will also be allowed to take a stake in Skyguide, the Swiss air traffic control agency.

Stolpe said he expected that the noise problem would improve for residents of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany, since more flights would be landing via the southern approach to Zurich airport.

Germany may have backed off from the flight restrictions for other reasons too according to Hutzli. “The Germans may have gone too far, since none of their airports face similar measures concerning flight paths,” he told swissinfo.

Both Zurich airport and Switzerland’s national carrier, Swiss, have welcomed the “provisional solution” to the flight restrictions.

swissinfo with agencies

In brief

In October 2001, Leuenberger negotiated an aviation accord with his then German counterpart, Kurt Bodewig.

The two sides agreed to cut by a third the number of flights permitted to fly over Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany before landing in Zurich, less than 20 kilometres from the German border.

Leunberger was criticised in Switzerland for giving too much away and parliament refused to ratify the deal.

The German government then retaliated by imposing tougher restrictions.

Switzerland lodged a complaint with the European Commission and launched a separate legal challenge in Germany.