Location Altenrhein Elevation AMSL 1,306 ft / 398 m 10R/28L 4,921 Code ACH Phone +41 71 858 51 65 | Hub for People's Viennaline Website peoples.ch 4,921 1,500 Elevation 398 m | |
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Address Flughafenstrasse 11, 9423 Thal, Switzerland Serves St. Gallen, Switzerland, Lake Constance Similar Altenrhein Luftfahrt GmbH - D, Altenrhein Realco AG, Friedrichs lufthavn, Altenrhein Airport Catering, Dornbirn - Bahnhof Profiles | ||
St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport (IATA: ACH, ICAO: LSZR) is a small airport in Altenrhein in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland near Lake Constance. It is also known under its trading name People's Business Airport and is the home base for People's Viennaline.
Contents
History
At the end of World War II, 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 served St. Gallen-Altenrhein from Vienna 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 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 their 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 they declined.
Terminal
The airport features a small passenger terminal building and some apron and hangar stands for aircraft such as the Embraer 170, business jets or general aviation planes such as the Cessna 172. As there are no jet bridges, 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 or the Bombardier Q Series.
Airlines and destinations
The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at St. Gallen–Altenrhein Airport:
The nearest bigger airport is Friedrichshafen Airport in Germany, on the opposite side of Lake Constance 45 kilometres (28 mi) to the northwest by ferry or by plane.
Ground transportation
The airport can be reached via motorway A1 (Zürich - Winterthur, 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 and their railway stations.