Bern Airport

Bern Airport
IATA: BRN – ICAO: LSZB / LSMB
Summary
Airport type Public
Operator ALPAR Flug- und Flugplatz- gesellschaft AG
Serves Bern, Switzerland
Location Belp
Hub for
Elevation AMSL 1,673 ft / 510 m
Coordinates 46°54′44″N 07°29′57″E / 46.91222°N 7.49917°E / 46.91222; 7.49917Coordinates: 46°54′44″N 07°29′57″E / 46.91222°N 7.49917°E / 46.91222; 7.49917
Website www.flughafenbern.ch
Map
BRN

Location of the airport in Switzerland

Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
14/32 1,730 5,676 Asphalt
14L/32R 650 2,133 Grass
Statistics (2015)
Passengers 190,032
Source: Swiss AIP at EUROCONTROL

Bern Airport (IATA: BRN, ICAO: LSZB / LSMB), formerly Regionalflugplatz Bern-Belp in German, is an airport serving Bern, the capital of Switzerland. The airport is located within the town limits of Belp,[1] and features flights to some European metropolitan and several leisure destinations. It handled 271,111 passengers in 2012, an increase of 47 percent over 2011,[2] and serves as the homebase for SkyWork Airlines and a base for Helvetic Airways.

History

The airport was established in 1929 by Alpar, a private airline that operated within Switzerland until the outbreak of World War II. After the war, Alpar remained in business as the airport's operator, supported by subsidies of the cantonal and city government.[3] A planned expansion of the airport in 1947 did not pass in a popular referendum, and it was not until 1950 that the first concrete airstrip was built. In 2014, Alpar was renamed to Flughafen Bern AG.

Multiple attempts to build an international airport in or around Bern instead of the small regional airport at Belpmoos failed. In 1945, the national parliament decided to build the first international airport, now Zürich Airport, at Kloten near Zürich instead of in Utzensdorf near Bern, though plans for development there were retained as an inter-urban airport which would require less space and thus placate local opposition by farming interests.[4] A 1963 airport project near Herrenschwanden was abandoned because of strong popular opposition, notably by farmers, as was a 1966 project in Rosshäusern and a 1970 project Kallnach.[5]

Facilities

Aerial view of Bern Airport

The airport has multiple touchdown areas, a paved runway (14/32 of 1,730 metres (5,676 ft), a grass runway (32L/14R of 650 metres (2,133 ft), a heli-square, and a glider area. Runway 14 has an ILS approach and an NDB approach.

The existing terminal was expanded to better accommodate flights to the non-Schengen area in 2011. Planned development includes new taxiways and a new parking area.

The Biderhangar, one of the airport's hangars built by Swiss aviation pioneer Oskar Bider, is listed as a heritage site of national significance. The airport also houses the head office of Heliswiss.[6] Previously the North Terminal housed the head office of SkyWork Airlines.[7][8]

Other usage

The aircraft of the air transport service of the Swiss Air Force are stationed at Bern Airport. These are two jets and two turboprops. The former ones are mainly used for VIP transport and particularly the transport of members of the Bundesrat. They are also used for other purposes, for example deportations or to support international peacekeeping measures. The two turboprop DHC-6 Twin Otter and Beechcraft King Air are not usually used for VIP flights, but for the passenger transport as well as for the country's topography service.[9] The Beechcraft 1900 is also used by the country's topography service for the same tasks. The two jets are a Dassault Falcon 900[10] and a Cessna Citation Excel, which offer up to seats for VIPs.

Additionally, Bern Airport serves as the homebase of the Federal Office of Civil Aviation. A base of the air rescue organization Rega is also located at the Airport, using a Eurocopter EC 145.

Airlines and destinations

The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at Bern Airport:[11]

AirlinesDestinations
BMI Regional Munich
Etihad Regional
operated by Darwin Airline 		Seasonal charter: Palma de Mallorca
Helvetic Airways Seasonal: Antalya, Brindisi, Heraklion, Olbia, Palma de Mallorca, Preveza, Zakynthos
Seasonal charter: Djerba, Kos, Larnaca, Rhodes
SkyWork Airlines Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin-Tegel, Cologne/Bonn, Hamburg, London-City,1 Munich, Palma de Mallorca, Vienna
Seasonal: Cagliari, Elba, Figari, Heringsdorf,1 Ibiza, Jersey, Menorca, Olbia, Rijeka, Zadar

^1 SkyWork Airlines flights to Heringsdorf Airport and London City Airport are operated with an intermediate stop in Basel/Mulhouse. However, SkyWork does not sell tickets on the Swiss domestic sector.[12]

Ground transportation

Two bus lines serve the airport: the AirportBus Bern (line 334) connects the terminal every half-hour with Belp railway station where passengers can connect to frequent S-Bahn trains S3, S4, S31 and S44 to Bern main station. The journey time to Bern city center is 30 minutes. The bus line 160 connects the airport with Belp, Rubigen and Münsingen (connection to S-Bahn trains S1).

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ortsplan Archived August 13, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.." Town of Belp. Retrieved on 8 December 2010.
  2. ↑ http://www.derbund.ch/bern/region/Flughafen-BernBelp-verzeichnet-47-Prozent-mehr-Passagiere/story/19731978
  3. ↑ Benedikt Meyer: Im Flug. Schweizer Airlines und ihre Passagiere, 1919-2002. Chronos, Zürich 2014, ISBN 978-3-0340-1238-6
  4. ↑ Bell, E. A. (10 May 1945). "Swiss Planning". Flight and Aircraft Engineer. Royal Aero Club. XLVII (1898): 501. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  5. ↑ "Das Grounding aller Berner Flughafenpläne". Berner Zeitung. 22 November 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  6. ↑ "Bern-Belp base." Heliswiss. Retrieved on 25 February 2011. "Heliswiss is an international helicopter company based at Bern-Belp Airport."
  7. ↑ "Contact." SkyWork Airlines. Retrieved on 8 December 2010. "SkyWork Flughafen Bern-Belp Terminal Nord CH 3123 Bern-Belp."
  8. ↑ "Terms and conditions." SkyWork Airlines. Retrieved on 8 December 2010. ""We", "our" "ourselves" and "us" means Sky Work Airlines Ltd., domiciled in Bern-Belp, Switzerland."
  9. ↑ "Lufttransportdienst des Bundes (LTDB) auf admin.ch". Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  10. ↑ "Mittel: Flugzeuge, Helikopter, Flab" (in German). Swiss Air Force. Retrieved 14 July 2009.
  11. ↑ http://www.flughafenbern.ch/en/passengers/timetable
  12. ↑ http://www.austrianaviation.net/news-international/news-detail/datum/2015/06/01/skywork-uebernimmt-basel-london-city.html

External links

Media related to Bern-Belp Airport at Wikimedia Commons

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