St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport Explained

St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport
Nativename:Flughafen St. Gallen-Altenrhein
Image2-Width:250
Iata:ACH
Icao:LSZR
Pushpin Map:Switzerland#Canton of St. Gallen
Pushpin Map Caption:Location of airport in Switzerland##Location of airport in Canton of St. Gallen
Pushpin Label:ACH
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
City-Served:St. Gallen, Switzerland
Lake Constance
Liechtenstein
Location:Altenrhein
Elevation-F:1306
Coordinates:47.4855°N 9.5611°W
Hub:People's
R1-Number:10R/28L
R1-Length-F:4921
R1-Length-M:1500
R1-Surface:Asphalt
R2-Number:10L/28R
R2-Length-F:1968
R2-Length-M:600
R2-Surface:Grass

St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport, German: Flughafen St. Gallen-Altenrhein, is a small airport in Altenrhein in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, near Lake Constance. It is the home base for People's.

History

At the end of World War II, Swiss authorities identified existing locations that were to be modernized as regional airports, a second tier of infrastructure to support the primary urban airports, with St. Gallen-Altenrhein being one of the five.[1]

Austrian Airlines served St. Gallen-Altenrhein from Vienna since 2003 when it took over the route from Rheintalflug, a predecessor of InterSky. The airport decided to terminate the contracts with Austrian in 2011 and started their own airline, People's (formerly People's Viennaline), to serve the route. Austrian decided to continue the route as well in direct competition. As a result, there were up to six daily flights from the small airport to Vienna during that period. In spring 2013, Austrian announced the termination of its route to Vienna due to continuing losses as a result of the harsh competition.[2] After that, People's offered a codeshare agreement to Austrian, which it declined.[3]

Facilities

Terminal

The airport features a small passenger terminal building and some apron and hangar stands for aircraft such as the Embraer 170, business jets or general aviation planes such as the Cessna 172. As there are no jet bridges, walk-boarding is used.

Runway

The paved, eastbound runway 10 is equipped with an Instrument landing system (ILS CAT I).[4] Due to its short length the main runway can only be used by smaller passenger aircraft such as the Embraer E-Jets or the Bombardier Q Series.

Airlines and destinations

The following airline offers regularly scheduled and seasonal flights at St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport:[5]

The nearest larger airport is Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany, on the opposite side of Lake Constance, 45km (28miles) to the north-west by car or by ferry.

Ground transportation

The airport can be reached via motorway A1 (Zürich - Winterthur, Exit Rheineck-Thal). Taxis and a shuttle service are available. There is also a scheduled bus connection from the airport to the nearby towns of Rorschach and Rheineck and their railway stations, and, respectively.[6]

Incidents and accidents

See also

References

Notes

External links

Notes and References

  1. Bell . E. A. . 10 May 1945 . Swiss Planning . Flight and Aircraft Engineer . Royal Aero Club . XLVII . 1898 . 501 . 5 July 2016.
  2. Web site: aero.de - Luftfahrt-Nachrichten und -Community. www.at.aero.de.
  3. Web site: Austrian Aviation Net: AUA-Rückzug - Peoples: Codeshare "beste Lösung" . www.austrianaviation.net . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130309021127/http://austrianaviation.net/news-regional/news-detail/datum/2013/03/06/nach-aua-rueckzug-peoples-codeshare-beste-loesung.html . 2013-03-09.
  4. Web site: Zahlen & Fakten Peoples Businessairport St. Gallen – Altenrhein . www.peoplesbusinessairport.ch . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130122030619/http://www.peoplesbusinessairport.ch/aviation/zahlen-fakten . 2013-01-22.
  5. https://peoples.ch/home peoples.ch - Flight schedule
  6. Web site: Ihre Anreise an Flughafen St.Gallen-Altenrhein.
  7. News: 20 Jahre nach dem Cessna-Absturz: Ein einmaliger Bodensee-Krimi. sda/lehs. Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF). 2017-10-09. de-CH.