Swiss perspectives in 10 languages

Zurich Airport to start runway extensions earliest in 2030

Zurich Airport to begin planning runway extension, but construction not expected to begin until 2030
Zurich Airport to begin planning runway extension, but construction not expected to begin until 2030. Keystone

Officials at Zurich Airport want to remain in dialogue with the public following the positive vote on runway extensions. Discussions prior to the vote had shown that the airport needs to address certain areas.

In particular, the delay situation after 11pm needs to be improved, said airport CEO Lukas Brosi on Friday at the presentation of the 2023 annual results.

As expected, Brosi was pleased with the outcome of last Sunday’s vote. The question of whether to extend two of the three runways at the airport had developed into a fundamental yes or no debate. However, the advantages have been recognised, said the airport CEO, who spoke of a broad consensus, given that only one district was opposed.

More

According to Brosi, Zurich Airport will now prepare the application for planning permission and submit it to the federal government. As the company expects the process to take long time, it does not expect construction to begin until 2030 at the earliest.

Runway 28 will be extended by 400 metres to the west to a new total length of 2,900 metres and runway 32 by 280 metres to the north to a new length of 3,580 metres. Zurich voters approved the proposal on Sunday with a 61.7% majority.

More

Debate
Hosted by: Sara Pasino

How can Swiss trains survive low-cost airlines?

Swiss trains are often more expensive than flights. How can they compete with low-cost airlines?

56 Comments
View the discussion

Adapted from German by DeepL/kc/amva

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Daily news

Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox.

Daily

The SBC Privacy Policy provides additional information on how your data is processed.

Popular Stories

Most Discussed

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR