Kevan James
August 4, 2022.
On 11 October 1919, the Geneva Grand Council approved the establishment of an airfield and one hundred years later, the small airfield at Cointrin has unsurprisingly changed markedly.
Genève Aéroport is one of the oldest airports on the European Continent and has been at the forefront of aviation, growing alongside the city and its region. Owned and operated by the State of Geneva, the airport has been an autonomous public institution since 1994. The airport company is the flagship of a site hosting some 200 other businesses and overall, employs some some 11,000 people.
For the 100th year celebrations and following extensive advance planning, some thirty projects had been planned for the year 2020, under the strapline 'Our airport, my history'. The festivities were officially launched on 28 February 2020, at an official ceremony with the terminal being decorated with centenary visual identities for the occasion. Then less than a month later, commercial aviation came to a juddering halt with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite this, in 2021, Geneva Airport welcomed 5.92 million passengers (67% less than in 2019 which totalled 17,926,625 passengers), due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
The airport also opened the new East Wing on 14 December 2021, which is dedicated to intercontinental flights came into service. At the end of last year, twenty intercontinental destinations (outside Europe) were served, including 7 long-haul flights of more than five hours' flight.
Today, Geneva is connected to over 137 destinations, operated by 48 airlines.
The new East Wing:
As well as Swiss International, GVA is a hub for easyJet.
Kenya Airways is the latest carrier to serve the airport
GVA is only 4km from the centre of the city
Schutz / Wikimedia Commons
All images courtesy of Genève Aéroport unless otherwise stated