The pandemic in some cases completely brought aviation to a standstill last year. How badly Zurich Airport was hit by Corona is shown in the “Airport Report 2021” published on Friday by the Zurich Government Council. This regularly documented balance sheet relates to the past year – and thus to the first year of the corona pandemic.

At that time, due to the lockdown, large parts of the restaurants, shops and services at the airport were closed for almost two months. Together with the restricted air traffic, this had a major impact on the course of business at Flughafen Zürich AG (FZAG) and the Zurich aircraft noise index. It is said that both are “clearly” different from the developments in previous years.

Government council is satisfied

The airport posted a loss of 69 million francs for the first time since 2001. “Nevertheless, FZAG did not have to apply for bridging funding from the federal government, as it caused a well-established war before the pandemic,” writes the government council. Certain strategic goals were also achieved in the ownership strategy – such as the accessibility of Zurich as a business location. The government council is correspondingly satisfied with the business activities of FZAG. You have “successfully led society through the greatest crisis in aviation”.

Last year flight movements were around 111,000 and the number was almost 60 percent below the previous year. The number of take-offs and landings between 11.30 p.m. and 00.30 a.m., which is intended for the reduction of delays without a permit, also decreased accordingly. A total of 321 flights by large aircraft were counted. In addition, FZAG issues 56 individual permits for the period after 11.30 p.m. In the previous year there were 2359 flights or 207 individual permits. There were no possible violations of the night flight regulations.

Fewer people disturbed by aircraft noise

These declines also have an impact on the aircraft noise exposure of the population. This is shown in the Zurich Aircraft Noise Index (ZFI), which records people who are severely annoyed while awake (HA) and people who die at night from aircraft noise while sleeping (HSD). The HA value fell last year by 65 percent to 12,272 people, the HSD value by 86 percent to 3,195 people. The ZFI monitoring value 2020 is thus more than 31,500 people (-67 percent) below the reference value and 42,800 people (-73 percent) below the monitoring value of 2019.

It should stay that way even after the corona pandemic: According to the government council, the airport partners will continue their efforts to reduce noise. In addition, measures to improve safety could have the potential to make progress on the noise situation. The government council is therefore assuming that the noise situation in the airport region will «continue to improve overall» compared to before the pandemic.