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Airport History Airport St. Gallen-Altenrhein's origins goes back to the year 1926, when Professor Claude Dornier took the decision to build his famous "Flying Boat" DO-X in Altenrhein. Expansion In 1927, the original 600 meter long grass runway has been constructed. It was used for regularly scheduled flights to Basel, Dübendorf, Innsbruck and Munich until the outbreak of World War II. In the euphoria surrounding the rapidly developing air traffic, Altenrhein was seen as a major European aerodrome for aeroplanes, float planes and flying boats. In cohesion of a federal request for the development of fighter aircraft , a 1200m long and 30m wide hard surface runway had to be built by Flug- und Fahrzeugwerk Altenrhein (FFA) in 1954. This runway has been extended to today's length of 1500m, in 1979. This extension became necessary because FFA was awarded a further government contract to service Hunter fighter aircraft until 1993. Maintenance It was foreseeable that the construction and revision of military aircraft would loose its importance in Altenrhein. Therefore the focus had been switched to the maintenance of civilian aircraft. Daily scheduled flights to Vienna In the second half of the 1980’s Rheintalflug Seewald GmbH approached the Airport about setting up daily scheduled flights to Vienna. The concession for these flights was granted by the federal authority in 1988. An extensive development of infrastructure The expansion of the aircraft maintenance area, as well as the scheduled flight operations required an extensive upgrading of the airport infrastructure. In the time from 1988 to 1990, new hangars and an airport terminal building were built, an instrument landing system installed. Considerable sums were also invested in safety and security equipment such as, fire fighting vehicles, a weather station, a Skiddometer, X-ray machines for baggage checks and a walk through metal detector for passenger checks. In conjunction with the inaugural flight of Rheintalflug Seewald GmbH to Vienna, the instrument landing system was put into operation, in spring 1991. In 2005, the installation of lead-in lights, a significant improvement in case of poor visibility. Further expansion The years from 2001 to 2009 important investment had been made: - a customer friendly arrivals hall - a fire department hall - a modern baggage handling system - a business lounge - check-in desks - new hangars - taxiway widening - a new fire fighting vehicle - upgrading of the business lounge - new X-ray machines for baggage - a new walk through metal detector - renovations of the restaurant Cockpit - a new ATC Tower - a new tow car Company History
Development of Scheduled Flights
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