Geneva Cointrin International Airport

Geneva Cointrin International Airport is the second-busiest airport in Switzerland after Zurich (ZRH) and one of the most internationally oriented airports in Europe by any measure, serving 70 airlines on 226 routes to 150 nonstop destinations. Located 4 km (2.5 mi) northwest of central Geneva at an elevation of 1,411 ft (430 m), GVA has a defining peculiarity: the airport straddles the Franco-Swiss border, with the single 12,795 ft (3,900 m) asphalt runway running immediately parallel to the frontier. A dedicated French Sector in the terminal — complete with French customs, car hire, and a direct road exit into France — allows passengers to arrive at GVA and clear into France without entering Switzerland, a configuration unique among major European airports. The airport is a major base for easyJet Switzerland (the carrier's second-largest operating base in Europe), Swiss International Air Lines, and Edelweiss Air, and serves as a critical winter gateway to the French and Swiss Alps: Chamonix, Verbier, Zermatt, Val d'Isère, Méribel, and Courchevel are all within a 1–3 hour drive, and GVA handles a severe seasonal peak every Saturday through the December–April ski season with dedicated coach and private-transfer infrastructure. The airport also serves the dense international-organization ecosystem in Geneva — UN Office at Geneva, WHO, WTO, ICRC, CERN, WIPO — driving an unusually business-class-heavy traffic profile for an airport of its size. GVA operates a single runway (04/22) configured in concrete, on an extremely constrained site between the city, the lake, the French border, and a highway. The Palexpo conference complex sits immediately north of the runway. The terminal is a single connected structure with Main Terminal, T1, and the French Sector; a long-planned new East Wing will replace aging 1960s infrastructure. Limited runway length and environmental restrictions effectively cap traffic growth, making GVA one of the most slot-constrained airports in continental Europe.