Test planning process of spatial and airport development for Zurich Airport

3.1 Starting point

Founded 22 June 1945, Zurich Airport has developed into a modern and high-performance intercontinental airport. The increase in airline passengers and flight movements could be met with a gradual build-up of the airport. However, the topographical circumstance forces a self-crossing runway system (Figure 1). The construction of the so-called V-runway 14/32 made independent starts and landings possible.

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Fig. 1. Topographical circumstance of the Zurich Airport (UNIQUE, 2002)

Fig. 2: Gradual development of Zurich Airport. (Source of images: www.zrhwiki.ch; UNIQUE 2009)

Air traffic at Zurich Airport experienced steady growth in the 1990s reaching the highest figures up to this day in 2000 with 22.7 million passengers and 272,000 flight movements in regular service. Internationally seen, Zurich Airport belongs to the mid-sized European airports.

After a stark drop in passengers to 17 million at the start of the new century, by 2008 the airport was once again handling around 22 million passengers. With the high capacity utilisation of the airport, conflicts, especially in the area of aircraft noise, led to a series of changes and limitations in air traffic. This produced open questions that have not been solved yet.

The following section identifies the central elements needed to understand the conflict. These form an important component for future solutions of airport and spatial development in the airport region of Zurich as part of the ongoing work on the Swiss Federal Aerospace Infrastructure Plan (Sachplan Infrastruktur der Luftfahrt / SIL)

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Tab. 1: Zurich in comparison to other international airports by passengers/year (Data source:

Airport Council International 2009)

Since the end of May 2000, the essential circumstances of the Zurich Airport have undergone many changes. Some of these are:

• Ordnance, repeal and new ordnance for noise emission limits for large civil aircraft (from April 2000 to May 2001).

• Termination of the 1984 administrative agreement between Switzerland and Germany by Germany (31 May 2000).

• Passage of the concept section of the Aerospace Infrastructure Plan by the Swiss parliament (18 October 2000).

• Privatisation of the airport and granting of an operations concession to Zurich Airport AG for 50 years (1 June 2001).

• Terrorist attack in the USA (11 September 2001).

• Grounding of the Swissair fleet (2 October 2001).

• Gradual introduction of restrictions on the use of southern German air space (starting 19 October 2001) based on the CH-D treaty on arrivals traffic at Zurich Airport signed on 18. October 2001.

• Subsequent failure of the treaty when the upper chamber of the Swiss parliament rejected it on 18 March 2003. Germany’s response on 17 April 2003

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was to put a stricter unilateral executive order into force in German air traffic regulations.

• Discussion of five new operation concepts as part of the SIL coordination project with a plan for 420,000 flight movements (starting 25.10.2001).

These uncertainties have also considerably increased the spatially significant conflicts in airport and spatial development. In its position statement on the design of the cost object bulletin (Objektblatt) for Zurich Airport, part of the Aerospace Infrastructure Plan of 3 July 2002, the government of the Canton of Zurich, represented by the Cantonal Building Office, commissioned a special ad hoc project organisation to work out a long-term perspective. The main conditions were to:

• Assure long term scope of action for the spatial development of the airport region and for the airport traffic

• Keep the negative effects of air traffic on the population and environment at the best possible limits for the long term.

• Prepare and present concrete fundamental principles for the Cantonal Planning Guide (Richtplan) within an appropriate timeframe.

3.2 Project organisation of the test planning process

To manage the requested foundation work, a special ad hoc project organisation was selected for the test planning process, in the sense of a Wiener Model, which showed the following characteristics:

• Power of the best argument, practical before formal competence

• Bias-free exploration of long-term perspectives using several teams

• Competition of ideas, simultaneous test planning

• Supervision by independent experts

• Clear role division between work on the fundamentals and policy

• Direct report of results to the executive representatives

The options for the long-term spatial development of the airport region and the development of the airport infrastructure were surveyed and evaluated, free of prejudice and uncoupled from politics, by administratively independent external experts.

• Consideration of the special topographical conditions

• Weather conditions (wind, visibility, temperature)

• Settlement structure according to the canton plan of 1995

• Traffic capacity maximum of 420,000 flight movements per year

• Top capacity of 90 flight movements per hour, i.e., 60 landings and 30 starts or the reverse (plan values for Zurich Airport (formerly Unique) for the SIL variations comparison of October 2001)

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• International regulations for air traffic (ICAO, etc.)

From 1983 to 2003, the number of registered flights in instrument air traffic at Zurich Airport increased from 141,000 to 256,000 (+82%). Up to 2001, landing aircraft were mainly guided from the north to runways 14 and 16, which are equipped with an extremely precise instrument landing system. After the termination of the administrative agreement by Germany in 2000, major reductions in the use of southern German air space were established in steps, bringing it down to regulation levels. Since the end of October 2003, arrivals from the east are routed to runway 28 and from the south to runway 34 (Figure 1).

The bulk of aircraft departures continue to use runway 28 to the west. The importance of runway 16 to the south for departures has starkly increased, especially since 1997. To comply with the German restrictions, runway 32 to the north will be increasingly used.

The central task of the test planning team was to create a perspective for the long-term development of the airports and its spatial catchment area. This perspective should especially demonstrate the critical element of feasibility as well as the effects and consequences of the long-term perspective. The work was oriented to the following requirements:

• Reduce noise pollution to minimise the effect on residents and meet planning and construction restrictions.

• Ensure a safe and stable air traffic operation

• Identify possibilities and offers of cooperation with partners outside the canton

• Describe modules for development that represent key and well-rounded steps

• Protect the future compatibility of the development steps with regard to air committee eliminated three approaches by testing them against the defined frame conditions (Figure 3).

• Change location of airport

• Airport networking system with other Swiss airports

• Unchanged runway system