Sion, a Swiss air force base is crammed with the corporate
jets and helicopters of the super-rich. Sion’s private-plane operations have
surged because its location is well away from prying eyes a guaranteed lure for
the publicity-shy oligarch.
“We keep quiet and that’s why they come,” Bernard Karrer,
who runs the airport, said in an interview. “You’re through customs and
immigration in three minutes. The helicopter is waiting and you go. That’s our
asset.” He went on to say “Our wealthy clients have their chalets and their five-
star hotels and they are still going to come here. There won’t be a dramatic
impact.” Sion has no inbound charter flights so the elite are not exposed to
the wider tourist market and the common herd.
Sion’s clientele are unlikely to be put off by yesterday’s
surge in the Swiss franc after the scrapping of a cap on the euro exchange
rate, with private-jet users largely immune to concerns about even a 10 percent
rise in costs especially at a time of plummeting aviation-fuel prices. In Sion,
80 million francs ($89 million) of private investment at what remains a
publicly owned facility used by the Swiss military has created state-of-the-art
facilities. Arriving guests walk only 20 meters (65 feet) from their plane to
the border control, while a private-jet terminal opened in 2013 by TAG Aviation
Holding SA boasts three VIP salons, a pilot lounge and 12,000 square meters of
aircraft parking. That’s ample room for even the biggest Boeing luxury business
jets. Sion is unique in giving jets of
Saudi princes and Russian oligarchs priority over the air force’s Northrop
Grumman F-5E Tigers, whose pilots train there.
Sion is too far west to serve as an entry point for the
company executives and politicians who will flock to Davos in the far southeast
of Switzerland, though a new route to the World Economic Forum has been opened
up via Duebendorf military base near Zurich, which has room for 40 private jets
and is a one-hour helicopter ride from the mountain town.
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