Subject: Re: [BoundaryPoint] What's next: US without an "A"?
Date: Mar 09, 2002 @ 09:16
Author: Peter Hering ("Peter Hering" <hering@...>)
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>
Right, Len - our world's changing fast...
maybe there will be another US - without an
"A" in Europe...???
Peter H.
 
-------Original Message-------
 
From: lnadybal
Date: Saturday, March 09, 2002 02:23:53
Subject: [BoundaryPoint] Re: Article on the Basel/Mulhouse Airport from the New York Times
 
Now they have a new one, just called "Swiss".
Kinda like Czechoslovakia being split and one part now called "Czech".
Swiss without air; Czech without a mate - get it? Oh, No!
LN in DC


--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., "Andrew T. Patton" <andrew@A...> wrote:
> You can disregard info on Swissair as
they are bankrupt. There was
an
> interesting discussion about
this airport on usenet. It seems that
it
> has some of the
shortest "flights" in the world. Some planes shift
> from Basel to
Mulhouse so that they are considered internal flights
in
> the
Schengan area. The plane does not move in the "flight" but the
>
depart point changes. The real shortest flight that actual has a
>
takeoff and landing is 2 minutes long and is between Westray and
Papa
> Westray in the Orkney Islands of Scotland.
>
> ---
>
> January 10, 1999
>
> PRACTICAL
TRAVELER / By ROGER COLLIS
>
> Euro Airport as Regional
Hub
>
> Swissair has introduced nonstop service from Newark
to Basel,
> Switzerland, welcome news to travelers who can now make
fast
> connections through a small, user-friendly airport to
provincial
> cities like Bilbao, Nuremberg, Dresden, Toulouse,
Nice,
> Marseilles, Valencia, Friedrichshafen and Rostock.
>
> There are also flights to major cities such as London and
Berlin,
> but often to business airports like London City and
Tempelhof, a
> short cab ride to the city center. In addition, there
are
> connections to megahubs like Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle
in
> Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt -- if that's where you need to
go.
>
> The six-times-weekly service, which began Dec. 17, is
by Swissair
> Airbus 310 (42 business-class and 143 economy seats)
as a
> code-share with Delta Airlines and Crossair --
Swissair's
> regional subsidiary -- which is developing an
extensive
> hub-and-spoke network through Basel.
>
>
Newark-Basel is the first of a dozen similar "long, thin"
> services
(that is, with sparse traffic) that will be operated in
> Crossair
colors on routes such as Basel-Buenos Aires/Atlanta/
> Mexico
City/Charlotte, N.C. - what I call regional long-haul routes.
>
Cross air ultimately plans to acquire a long-haul fleet of upgraded
> Boeing 767's to serve these routes.
>
> Book
a flight to Basel or Mulhouse, France, and you'll arrive at
> the
same airport -- Euro Airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg -- right
> at
the border separating Switzerland, France and Germany in the
> Upper
Rhine Valley.
>
> Four million people live within 60 minutes
of the airport, which
> is 6.3 miles (10 kilometers) from Basel; 16
miles (26 kilometers)
> from Mulhouse and 46 miles (75 kilometers)
from Freiburg in the
> southwestern corner of Germany. Zurich will
be 45 minutes away
> when a new highway is completed.
>
> Euro Airport, 50 years old but in the process of expansion,
will
> have served nearly three million passengers in 1998 (around
40
> percent each from France and Switzerland and 20 percent
from
> Germany) with 12 airlines currently offering more than
45
> scheduled flights to 92 destinations in 25 countries.
Such
> carriers as Air France, British Airways, Sabena, KLM
and
> Lufthansa serve 36 cities in 20 countries from Euro
Airport.
>
> Bypassing the Megahubs
>
> Crossair
plans to develop Euro Airport as a regional hub for
> people who
wish to travel between, say, Nuremberg and Bilbao, or
> Dresden and
Toulouse, thus saving time and avoiding the misery of
> changing
planes at a megahub like Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt,
> London,
Paris or Zurich, which give priority to long-haul
>
connections.
>
> Crossair's "Euro Cross" is a new strategy
that provides more than
> 520 connections a day between 40 cities
through Euro Airport with
> an expected connecting time of 20
minutes. The carrier aims to
> have 1,000 daily connections linking
48 European destinations by
> next year, including regional services
from Euro Airport to such
> destinations as Warsaw, Budapest,
Athens, Ankara, Bologna,
> Stockholm, Copenhagen, Glasgow, Oporto,
Trieste and Moscow, as
> well as long-haul routes to North America
and Asia.
>
> Euro Cross flights arrive and depart in four
coordinated waves:
> early in the morning, midday, afternoon and
evening, enabling
> people traveling to and from most destinations
in Europe to get
> there and back the same day.
>
> For
example, Toulouse-Vienna via Euro Cross is 2 hours 15 minutes
>
faster than via Zurich; Amsterdam-Bilbao is 2 hours faster than
>
via Paris; and Friedrichshafen-Birmingham is 1 hour 30 minutes
>
faster than connecting in Frankfurt.
>
> "If someone could
fly point-to-point from Frankfurt to Palma at a
> suitable time, he
would never go via Euro Cross, or if someone in
> Nuremberg could
save time by flying to Bordeaux via Frankfurt, he
> would not use
Euro Cross," says Moritz Suter, president and chief
> executive of
Crossair. "But people will take Euro Cross because
> it is faster
and easier in many cases."
>
> Convenience at a Price
>
> Crossair flies to 82 European destinations (plus around 25
routes
> on behalf of Swissair) with a fleet of 80 aircraft
consisting of
> 33-seat Saab 340 turboprops, 50-seat Saab 2000
turboprops and
> 97-seat Avro RJ jets. The company carried 4.7
million passengers
> in 1997 -- 19 percent more than the previous
year -- and made a
> net profit of about $28 million.
>
> Small planes operating frequent flights on lightly
traveled
> routes and relatively high fares are the key ingredients
to
> Crossair's success.
>
> Round-trip fares from Euro
Airport to London City, a 15-minute
> cab ride from the City, or
Heathrow are $1,085 in business class,
> $845 in economy and $185
discounted fare.
>
> Crossair is what you might call a "high
frills" carrier. Riding
> the 33-seat Saab 340 Cityliner, for
example, is the next best
> thing to a private plane. On short
flights you're served regional
> specialties with wines to match, or
open sandwiches of smoked
> salmon and cheese with Champagne from a
real bottle.
>
> The triangle where the frontiers of
Switzerland, France and
> Germany intersect on the Rhine is the
crossroads of ancient
> north-south and east-west trading routes, in
use long before the
> nations were created.
>
> Alsace
changed hands many times between France and Germany over
> the years
-- belonging to Germany from 1871 to 1918 and again
> from 1940
to
>
> 1944.
>
> From the balcony of Mr.
Suter's office at the airport, you can
> see the city of Basel to
the south, St. Louis in France to the
> north, and beyond that the
German city of Weil-am-Rhein on the
> other side of the Rhine and to
the northeast Lörrach, in Germany.
> Mulhouse is to the northeast;
to the north is Mulheim in Germany
> and Strasbourg in
France.
>
> A Historical Crossroads
>
> The
region had its genesis as a trading hub in 1226 when Bishop
> von
Thun of Basel mortgaged his entire fortune to build the first
>
bridge on the Rhine -- the tollhouse still stands in the center
> of
the old bridge.
>
> Merchant caravans from Scandinavia and
northern Germany would
> come down through the Rhine Valley,
crossing the river at Basel
> on their way south via the Alps to
Italy; the silk caravans from
> China came up from the Balkans,
crossing the Rhine here, and
> continuing on to Paris and
London.
>
> In the mid-19th century, railway engineers
followed the old
> caravan routes: the night express from Stockholm
to Palermo still
> crosses the Rhine at Basel -- one of the most
important railway
> hubs in central Europe.
>
> Germany
and France have train stations on Swiss ground in the
> center of
Basel. Modern highways follow the old routes from north
> to south
and west to east, still crossing the Rhine at Basel.
>
> The
Euro Airport is an intercultural experience. It is built on
> French
soil and run by a kind of public joint venture between
> France and
Switzerland with board members from each country along
> with
representatives from Germany -- a fast-growing sector of the
>
airport's business.
>
> There is a French-Swiss frontier
within the airport, which
> apparently can be shifted depending on
how many departure gates
> are needed on either side.
>
> The Eurobar straddles the frontier; the same bartender serves
on
> both sides. The Airport Grill offers entirely different menus
on
> the French and Swiss sides, with the food coming from the
same
> kitchen. A three-course dinner with wine could cost $55 a
person
> on the Swiss side, a third less on the French side.
>
> Whether you use the French or Swiss side depends, of course,
on
> where you're heading. (Each country has its own immigration
and
> customs channels.) But it may be a good idea to compare taxi
and
> car rental prices in French and Swiss francs. There are
separate
> parking lots on each side.
>
> If you're
going to Germany, you can come out either side. But the
> airport
bus to Freiburg goes from the French exit. And a French
> taxi is
likely to cost a lot less than a Swiss taxi. You may like
> the idea
of taking a French taxi to Germany or Switzerland.
> --
>
Andrew T. Patton WWW: http://www.AndrewPatton.com
> Fairfax, VA, USA
E-Mail: andrew@A...


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