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Samedan Airport, french: Aéroport de Samedan, it, Aeroporto di Samedan , also known as Engadin Airport,, french: Aéroport d'Engadin, it, Aeroporto d'Engadina, rm, Eroport da l'Engiadina is a regional
airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...
in
Samedan Samedan (, ) is a town and municipality in the Maloja Region in the Swiss canton of Grisons. It is served by Samedan railway station on the Rhaetian Railway network and by the Samedan Airport. History Samedan is first mentioned in 1139 as '' ...
in the
Engadin The Engadin or Engadine ( rm, ;This is the name in the two Romansh idioms that are spoken in the Engadin, Vallader and Puter, as well as in Sursilvan and Rumantsch Grischun. In Surmiran, the name is ''Nagiadegna'', and in Sutsilvan, it is ...
valley of
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
, 5 km from St. Moritz.


History

At the end of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, 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 Samedan being one of the five.


Facilities

The airport has one runway designated 03/21 with an
asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...
pavement measuring 1800 x 40 metres (5905 x 130 ft). Because of its location at the bottom of a valley, it is not equipped with an
instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...
.


Operations

At an elevation of 1,707 metres (5,600 ft), it is the second highest airliner airport in Europe (with
Courchevel Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Cou ...
being the highest). It is also considered one of the most challenging airports in the world because of its difficult topography and winds, and because of the thinness of the air at its altitude. The airport does not have any scheduled passenger flights (the nearest such airports are
Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label= Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Lugano has a populat ...
, 185 km/115 mi Milan Malpensa/Milan, 180km/112mi, and
Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Z ...
, 220 km/135 mi distance by road). Much of its traffic consists of light to heavy
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
traffic, including many private-corporate jets, private propeller aircraft, and the fleet of Swiss Jet. One of the biggest planes seen there, more often than not, is the HK Co.'s 737-200 or the A320 . The takeoff generally requires the spooling up of engines, with brakes on, to minimize the time on the runway while maximizing as much speed possible. This technique is generally performed by bigger aircraft, with heavier payload.


See also

* Transport in Switzerland


References


Notes


External links

* * * {{authority control Airports in Switzerland Engadin Samedan