New flight plans outlined for WEF’s top guns

In 2015 helicopters will transport WEF attendees from the military airport in Dübendorf to Davos Keystone

For the first time, VIPs attending the World Economic Forum (WEF) will land their private jets at the military airport in Dübendorf near Zurich, pass through customs there, and continue by helicopter to the meeting site in Davos, the defence ministry announced on Thursday.

In previous years, Zurich airport hosted up to 1,000 extra take-offs and landings by people attending the annual meeting – which draws heads of state and business leaders from around the world to discuss topics of global interest.

The theme of the 2015 session, taking place from January 12 to 26 in Davos in canton Graubünden, is “The New Global Context”. This theme “has to do with new political developments in connection with the technological revolution,” said WEF Founder Klaus Schwab in an interview with the business magazine Bilanz.

The first 400 Swiss soldiers have already started work on the logistics and security for the meeting. A total of 3,000 soldiers are expected to be on duty, with two thirds of them providing support for the flight operations of the Air Force. Outside of Davos, soldiers will protect the infrastructure needed for the meeting. The parliament has set an upper limit on the number of soldiers participating at 5,000.