Genève Aéroport’s centenary: programme update

On the occasion of its centenary, Genève Aéroport had planned many events over the coming months. Unfortunately, due to the current Covid-19 sanitary crisis, the programme has been reduced and rescheduled. Update on the situation.

On 11 October 1919, an avant-garde political act gave birth to Genève Aéroport, one of the oldest airport platforms in the Old Continent. One hundred years later, due to the Covid-19, the situation is strangely similar to that of the beginning of the century. Few planes apart from humanitarian repatriation flights, cargo flights, which supply our country with basic necessities, and urgent medical flights. The sharp slowdown in air traffic - barely twenty flights a day and a few hundred passengers at the moment - is causing a sharp drop in aeronautical and non-aeronautical revenues (shops, restaurants, car parks). 

The virus, which is currently devastating the entire planet, has a direct impact on many activities. The events planned for the centenary are part of it. It was decided to cancel the Aviation Festival on 26 September and the farmer's brunch on 30 August. The Kraftwerk concert, organised by Antigel and initially scheduled for 19 May, is postponed. Genève Aéroport is in discussions with Antigel about its partnership concerning the concert’s new date.

Other events have so far been postponed until the autumn, namely the conferences planned in collaboration with the University of Geneva. The ceremony to change the name of the Protocol Lounge to the Kofi Annan Area is also postponed to a later date, as is the Tribute to the agreement signed in 1956, which ratified an exchange of territories between Switzerland and France in view of an extension of the only runway at Genève Aéroport. All these dates will be fixed and announced at a later date. The Freight Festival will also be postponed.

New confirmed dates
The ACI Europe General Assembly, which is being held this year at Genève Aéroport, has been moved from June to 20-22 October. 

At the time of writing, Genève Aéroport's presence as guest of honour at the Automnales (13-22 November) is maintained. Likewise for the Idéathon, a workshop on the airport of tomorrow on 26 November, a subject of great interest!

Two postponements in 2021
Two centennial events will now take place in 2021. The two major achievements for the airport and International Geneva will be inaugurated once the construction works have been completed, namely the East wing, which is intended primarily for wide-body aircraft and the new terrace, which will be open to the public next spring. 

Information on cancelled or postponed events will be regularly updated at gva.ch. And why not take the opportunity of this timeless period to discover, in images and videos, the commemorative book «100 ans, Genève Aéroport», Slatkine editions, 160 pages for sale online? 

The centennial watch will also go on sale as well as other products on our website gva.ch (gva.boutique) during the month of June.


Photographs available  under our Media Library

Press Contact
Genève Aéroport
Madeleine von Holzen, spokesperson
madeleine.vonholzen@gva.ch, T +41 22 717 70 13

Update on the program: