[6] In the early years of aviation, the Dübendorf Air Base, located around 9 km (5.6 mi) southeast of Zurich Airport, also served as the city's commercial airfield.

In its report, a consortium of engineers and architects led by Locher & Cie advised against the previously discussed expansion options at Dübendorf and instead recommended a separate civil airport in the partially forested moorland area of the armoury situated between Kloten and Oberglatt.

The "Project II" of 29 April 1944 still provided for an area of 290 hectares (720 acres) at a cost of CHF 65 million, but the government council demanded a further reduction.

[9][10] In December 1944, the responsible Federal Councillor, Enrico Celio, explicitly spoke out in favour of Zurich-Kloten, in a letter to his counterparts, as did the governments of the cantons of Eastern and Central Switzerland and Ticino a month later.

[12][13] Initial plans for the airport, as laid out in the Federal Government's scheme of 1945, were centred on facilities capable of handling international airline traffic.

Due to time pressure - the landing of the first jet aircraft was planned for the following year - construction work began without waiting for approval of federal funding.

The canton of Zürich acquired a further 135 hectares (330 acres) of land for the expansion of the civil engineering works, which lasted until the beginning of 1961 in parallel with the construction of the buildings.

This envisaged a two-storey transverse hall on the landside of the airport, on the two main floors of which arriving and departing passengers were functionally separated.

When the conflict, described by the media as a "war of experts", threatened to escalate, President Willy Spühler invited representatives of the Federation and the cantons to a conference on 9 December 1963.

[12] On 18 February 1969, four armed members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) attacked El Al flight 432, firing Kalashnikov assault rifles at the Boeing 707-120B whilst it prepared for takeoff.

The Shin Bet employee Mordechai Rachamim fired back with his pistol and killed the terrorist Abdel Mohsen Hassan.

The actual target, however, had been an El Al flight from Munich to Tel Aviv, whose mail had been sent with Swissair to Zurich due to long delays.

The SBFZ even demanded the resumption of the central airport concept that was dropped in 1945 – instead of Utzenstorf this time in the "Grosse Moos", with two runways jutting into Lake Neuchâtel.

In the second half of the 1970s, the volume of traffic continued to rise sharply, so the canton of Zürich, the FIG and Swissair worked out a project for the fourth construction phase.

This programme provided for investments of CHF 393.3 million in Zürich-Kloten, but the subsidy contribution of 10.3% was significantly lower than for the Geneva and Basel-Mulhouse airports.

Also planned were a new control tower, a baggage sorting system, an additional multi-storey car park, waiting rooms and an operations centre for aircraft crews.

Later, Zürich's cantonal government also decided to renew the damaged western runway, which had to be closed for two and a half months in the summer of 1985 for this purpose.

[34] The project, which was subsequently revised and approved by Zürich's Cantonal Council in 1989, focused on more efficient use of the existing facilities, thereby enabling the handling of an additional 100,000 tonnes of freight annually.

[17] The cantonal popular initiative "for moderate air traffic" submitted in January 1991 intended to limit the airport to its then status, i.e. neither to allow more aircraft movements nor to expand the infrastructure.

The fifth construction phase, known as "Airport 2000" and costing a total of CHF 2.4 billion, was intended to replace outdated systems and further expand existing facilities.

Although a government rescue plan permitted some flights to restart a few days later, and the airline's assets were subsequently sold to become Swiss International Air Lines, the airport lost a large volume of traffic.

A month later, at 22:06 on 24 November, an inbound Crossair Avro RJ100 using this approach in conditions of poor visibility crashed into a range of hills near Bassersdorf and exploded, killing 24 of the 33 people on board.

[45] Following the demolition of some office buildings, the construction of the new baggage sorting facilities between the Operations Center and Terminal 1 began in spring 2018 with a total investment of CHF 500 million.

[47] Terminal A has reached the end of its life cycle and will be completely rebuilt – including the tower of the Skyguide Air Traffic Control.

All departing passengers access the same departure level of the Airside Centre, which includes duty-free shopping and various bars and restaurants, via airport security.

[206][207][208] In February 2009, Flughafen Zürich AG (FZAG) launched a three-stage architectural competition for "The Circle at Zurich Airport" development.

[citation needed] In the last year of its existence in 2007, the Rescue Service at Zurich Airport carried out around 5800 missions with 36 paramedics and three trainees.

If an emergency physician was needed, the resources of the partner organisations REGA (helicopters) or the NEF of "Schutz und Rettung Zürich" could be called upon.

[citation needed] Project SUS After two project studies, Unique (Flughafen Zürich AG) decided in the summer of 2007 to outsource the rescue service together with the operations centre and the professional fire brigade and to sell it to the Schutz und Rettung (Protection and Rescue) department of the city of Zürich for an amount of CHF 22 million.

With a strong positive operating result in 2007 and a reduced staffing level as of January 1, 2008, the catchment area of the rescue service expanded to include the northern districts of Zürich Schwamendingen, Seebach and Oerlikon.