St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport, , is a small

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

Altenrhein Thal is a village and municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Besides the village of Thal itself, the municipality also includes the villages of Altenrhein, Buechen, Buriet and ...

in the Canton of St. Gallen,

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, near

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

. It is the home base for People's.

History

At the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 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.

Austrian Airlines Austrian Airlines AG, often shortened to Austrian or AUA, is the flag carrier of Austria and a subsidiary of Lufthansa, the flag carrier of Germany. The airline is headquartered on the grounds of Vienna International Airport in Schwechat where i ...

served St. Gallen-Altenrhein from

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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. After that, People's offered a codeshare agreement to Austrian, which it declined.

Facilities

Terminal

The airport features a small passenger terminal building and some apron and hangar stands for aircraft such as the

Embraer 170 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast, narrow-body, short- to medium-range, twin-engined jet airliners designed and produced by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed to complement Embraer’s earlier ...

, business jets or general aviation planes such as the

Cessna 172 The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is an American four-seat, single-engine, high wing, fixed-wing aircraft made by the Cessna Aircraft Company.jet bridges A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

, walk-boarding is used.

Runway

The paved, eastbound runway ''10'' is equipped with an Instrument landing system (ILS CAT I). Due to its short length the main runway can only be used by smaller passenger aircraft such as the

Embraer E-Jets The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast, narrow-body, short- to medium-range, twin-engined jet airliners designed and produced by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed to complement Embraer’s earlier ...

or the

Bombardier Q Series The De Havilland Canada DHC-8, commonly known as the Dash 8, is a series of turboprop-powered regional airliners, introduced by de Havilland Canada (DHC) in 1984. DHC was bought by Boeing in 1986, then by Bombardier in 1992, then by Longv ...

Airlines and destinations

The following airline offers regularly scheduled, seasonal, and seasonal charter flights at St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport: The nearest larger airport is

Friedrichshafen Airport Friedrichshafen Airport (, ; also known as ''Bodensee Airport Friedrichshafen'') is a minor international airport 1.9 miles (3 km) north of Friedrichshafen, Germany, on the banks of Lake Constance (German: ''Bodensee''). It is the third bi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, on the opposite side of Lake Constance, to the north-west by car or by

ferry A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

Statistics

Ground transportation

The airport can be reached via motorway ''A1'' (

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Winterthur Winterthur (; ) is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. With over 120,000 residents, it is the country's List of cities in Switzerland, sixth-largest city by population, as well as its ninth-largest agglomeration with about 14 ...

, 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 Rheineck is a municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rheintal in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. History Rheineck is first mentioned about 1163 as ''castellum Rinegge''. In 1218 it was mentioned as ''Rinegg''. An older ...

and their railway stations, and , respectively.

Incidents and accidents

* On 24 January 1994, a Cessna 425 crashed into Lake Constance at Rorschach during its approach to the airport, killing all 5 people on board.

References

External links

St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport
(German) * {{DEFAULTSORT:St. Gallen-Altenrhein Airport Airports in Switzerland Buildings and structures in the canton of St. Gallen