EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg

EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg Flughafen Basel-Mülhausen-Freiburg Aéroport Bâle-Mulhouse-Fribourg
IATA: BSL, MLH, EAP – ICAO: LFSB MLH Location of airport in France BSL Location of airport near Switzerland
Summary
Airport type		Public
Serves		Basel (Switzerland) Mulhouse (France) Freiburg (Germany)
Location		Saint-Louis, France
Elevation AMSL		885 ft / 270 m
Coordinates		47°35′24″N 007°31′45″E / 47.59°N 7.52917°E / 47.59; 7.52917 (EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg)Coordinates: 47°35′24″N 007°31′45″E / 47.59°N 7.52917°E / 47.59; 7.52917 (EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg)
Website		www.EuroAirport.com
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
15/33	3,900	12,795	Concrete
08/26	1,820	5,971	Concrete
15R/33L	630	2,067	Grass
Statistics (2010)
Passengers			4,129,052
Freight (tons)			107,390
Aircraft Movements			77,152
Sources: French AIP,[1] airport website[2] and French AIP at EUROCONTROL[3]

EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg (IATA: BSL, MLH, EAP, ICAO: LFSB) is an international airport 6 km (3.7 mi) northwest^[3] of Basel (Switzerland), 22 km (14 mi) southeast^[3] of Mulhouse (France), and 70 km (43 mi) south of Freiburg (Germany). It is located in France, on the administrative territory of the commune of Saint-Louis near the Swiss and German borders. It handled 4,270,000 passengers in 2007.^[2]

International status

Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is one of the few airports in the world operated jointly by two countries, France and Switzerland. It is governed by the international convention of 1949. The headquarters of operations are located in Blotzheim, France.^[4] The airport is located completely on French soil, and the airport has a Swiss customs area connected to Basel by a border road.^[5] The airport is operated on an agreement established in 1946 where the three countries (Switzerland, Germany and France) are granted access to the airport without any customs or other border restrictions. The airport's board has 8 members from each France and Switzerland, and two advisers from Germany^[6]

Location of the airport relative to Basel

The airport building is split into two separate sections - Swiss and French. With Switzerland joining the Schengen Treaty in March 2009, the air side was rearranged to include a Schengen and non Schengen zone^[7].

An Air India Boeing 707 photographed at the EuroAirport in 1976.

Due to its unusual international status, EuroAirport has three IATA airport codes: BSL (Basel) is the Swiss code,^[8] MLH (Mulhouse) is the French code^[9] and EAP (EuroAirport) is the international code^[10]. The ICAO airport code is LFSB.^[1] The Geneva International Airport has a similar international status.

History

Plans for the construction of a joint Swiss-French airport started in the 1930s, but were stopped by the Second World War.

In 1946, talks were re-opened and it was agreed that an airport would be built at Blotzheim, 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) north of the city. France would provide the land, and the Swiss canton of Basel-Stadt would provide the construction costs. Basel-Stadt's Grand Council agreed to pay the costs for a provisional airport even before the international treaty was signed (which was not until 1949). Construction began on 8 March 1946 and a provisional airport with a 1,200-metre (3,900 ft) runway was officially opened on 8 May in the same year.

Between autumn 1951 and spring 1953, the east-west runway was extended to 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) and the "Zollfreistrasse" (sealed road) was constructed allowing access from Basel to the departure terminal without passing through French border controls.

The first enlargement project was approved by referendum in Basel in 1960 and over the following decades the terminals and runways were continually extended. The north-south runway was extended further to 3,900 metres (12,800 ft) in 1972. In 1984, an annual total of 1 million passengers was reached.

In 1987, the official name was changed to "Euro-Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg". In 1992, the total of 2 million passengers was reached, and in 1998 3 million. The decision was made to enlarge the terminals again with a new Y-finger dock, the first phase was completed in 2002, the second phase in 2005.

The airline Crossair was based at Basel and was the largest airline. Following the Swissair bankruptcy in 2001, and the transformation of Crossair into Swiss International Air Lines, the number of flights from Basel fell and the new terminal was initially underused. In 2004 the low cost carrier EasyJet opened a base at Basel and the passenger totals rose again, reaching 4 million in 2006.

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Aegean Airways	Heraklion Seasonal: Athens
Aigle Azur	Algiers, Béjaia, Constantine, Oran, Sétif
Air Algérie	Constantine
Air Arabia Maroc	Casablanca
Air Berlin	Berlin-Tegel, Fuerteventura, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Tenerife-South Seasonal: Catania, Heraklion, Ibiza, Kos, Lamezia Terme, Malta, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes
Air France	Marseille[11], Paris-Orly
Air France operated by Régional	Lyon, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Seasonal: Ajaccio
Air Mediterranee	Seasonal: Jijel
Air Transat	Seasonal: Montréal-Trudeau
Air VIA	Seasonal: Burgas
ArkeFly	Seasonal: Punta Cana
Austrian Airlines operated by Tyrolean Airways	Vienna
Belair	Hurghada, Luxor, Sharm el-Sheikh Seasonal: Antalya, Djerba, Enfidha , Marsa Alam, Nador
Belle Air	Pristina
BMI	London-Heathrow
British Airways	London-Heathrow
EasyJet	Barcelona, Berlin-Schönefeld, Edinburgh, Madrid, London-Gatwick
EasyJet Switzerland	Alicante, Amsterdam, Berlin-Schönefeld, Bordeaux, Copenhagen, Dresden, Düsseldorf, Edinburgh, Faro [begins 27 June 2012], Fuerteventura [begins 19 December], Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Hamburg, Ibiza [begins 23 June 2012], Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen, Lisbon, Malaga, Marrakech, Nantes, Naples, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Porto, Pristina, Rome-Fiumicino, Tel Aviv-Ben Gurion, Tenerife-South [begins 16 December], Thessaloniki, Venice-Marco Polo Seasonal: Ajaccio, Cagliari, Olbia, Split
Hello (airline)	Agadir [begins 1 November], Boa Vista [begins 7 November], Corfu, Djerba, Heraklion, Marrakech, Palma de Mallorca, Sal [begins 7 November]
Iceland Express	Seasonal: Reykjavik-Keflavik
KLM operated by KLM Cityhopper	Amsterdam
Lufthansa Regional operated by Augsburg Airways	Munich
Lufthansa Regional operated by Lufthansa CityLine	Frankfurt, Munich
Lufthansa Regional operated by Eurowings	Düsseldorf
Pegasus Airlines	Antalya, Istanbul-Sabiha Gökçen
Pegasus operated by IZair	Izmir
Swiss International Air Lines operated by Swiss European Air Lines	Barcelona, Brussels, Budapest, Copenhagen, Hamburg, London-City, Manchester, Prague, Rome-Fiumicino, Zürich Seasonal: Nice
TUIfly	Fuerteventura, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Seasonal: Corfu, Heraklion, Kos, Minorca, Palma de Mallorca, Rhodes, Tenerife-South
Tunisair	Djerba, Enfidha
Turkish Airlines	Istanbul-Atatürk
Twin Jet	Marseilles, Toulouse
VIM Airlines	Moscow-Domodedovo
XL Germany	Pristina [begins 17 December]

Cargo airlines

Airlines	Destinations
DHL Aviation	Leipzig/Halle
DHL operated by Atlantic Airlines	East Midlands
DHL operated by Bluebird Cargo	Geneva, Leipzig/Halle
FedEx Feeder operated by Air Contractors	Paris-Charles de Gaulle
Korean Air Cargo	Seoul-Incheon
MASkargo	Kuala Lumpur, Tashkent
TNT Airways	Liège
UPS Airlines operated by Farnair Switzerland	Cologne/Bonn, Geneva

Ground transport

• Connects to the A3 Motorway
• Basel's BVB bus No. 50 connects the Swiss sector of the airport to the Bahnhof SBB, which is the main Swiss and French railway station in Basel.
• French Distribus bus No. 11 connects the French sector of the airport to the Saint-Louis railway station.

Other facilities

Swiss International Air Lines head office at EuroAirport

Swiss International Air Lines is headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg in the Swiss section of the airport; even though the airport is within France, the Swiss head office is only accessible from Switzerland.^[12][13] The Swiss division Swiss Aviation Software has its head office there ^[14]

The airline Farnair Switzerland also has its head office at EuroAirport. As in the case of the Swiss head office, the Farnair head office may only be accessed from Switzerland.^[15] Hello, a Swiss airline, has its head office in the General Aviation area of EuroAirport.^[16]

Prior to the formation of Swiss International Air Lines, the regional airline Crossair was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport.^[17] Prior to its dissolution, Crossair Europe was headquartered on the grounds of EuroAirport.^[18]

See also

	France portal
	Switzerland portal
	Aviation portal

• Mulhouse-Habsheim Airport

References

1. ^ ^{a b} LFSB – BÂLE MULHOUSE (PDF). AIP from French Service d'information aéronautique, effective 17 Nov 2011.
2. ^ ^{a b} Statistics of the EuroAirport. EuroAirport.com, Retrieved 2007-09-05.
3. ^ ^{a b c} EAD Basic
4. ^ "General conditions of use." EuroAirport. Retrieved on 24 September 2009. "The Site is published by Basel-Mulhouse Airport, a Franco-Swiss public enterprise governed by the international convention of 4 July 1949 concerning its construction and operation and the headquarters of which are situated at 68730 Blotzheim, France."
5. ^ "Mulhouse -> Practical Information." Airlinair. Retrieved on 1 July 2010.
6. ^ The Board of Directors.
7. ^ Terminal plan.
8. ^ BSL - Basel/Mulhouse-EuroAirport Swiss. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
9. ^ MLH - Mulhouse, France/Basel-EuroAirport. Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 2007-09-05.
10. ^ airlinecodes.
11. ^ http://corporate.airfrance.com/en/press/news/article/item/loffensive-dair-france-a-marseille/
12. ^ "Facts and figures." Swiss International Air Lines. Retrieved on 13 June 2009.
13. ^ "Swiss International Air Lines Basel." Swiss International Air Lines. Retrieved on 24 September 2009.
14. ^ "CONTACT." Swiss Aviation Software. Retrieved on 17 September 2011. "Swiss AviationSoftware Ltd. BSLSAS/MA P.O.Box, CH-4002 Basel, Switzerland Marketing & Administration" The location is implied by this picture which is of the Swiss head office at Basel Airport.
15. ^ "How to find us." Farnair Europe. Retrieved on 8 December 2010.
16. ^ "Hello Location." (Direct image link) Hello. Retrieved on 1 July 2010.
17. ^ "Location." Crossair. Retrieved on 13 June 2009.
18. ^ World Airline Directory. Flight International. March 23–29, 2004. 58.

• "Franco-Swiss treaty for the construction and use of Basel-Mulhouse airport in Blotzheim" (1949). Text available in French and German.
• History of Basel Airport on Airport Website. (German)
• Information and some history on Airport Website. (English)
• Article on Basel Airport including information on its history. (German)

External links

• EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (official site) (English) (French) (German)
• Fly-EuroAirport.com (official B2C site of EuroAirport) (English) (French) (German)
• Aéroport de Bâle-Mulhouse (Union des Aéroports Français) (French)
• Accident history for BSL at Aviation Safety Network
• Accident history for MLH at Aviation Safety Network