EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg | |||||||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||||||
| Airport type | International | ||||||||||||||
| Owner | France and Swiss canton of Basel-City | ||||||||||||||
| Operator | L'administration de l'Aéroport de Bâle-Mulhouse | ||||||||||||||
| Serves |
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| Location | Saint-Louis, France | ||||||||||||||
| Opened | 8 May 1946 | ||||||||||||||
Operating base for | easyJet Switzerland | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 270 m (890 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Coordinates | 47°35′24″N 007°31′45″E / 47.59000°N 7.52917°E | ||||||||||||||
| Website | www | ||||||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||||||
Location of airport in Alsace region | |||||||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||||||
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| Statistics (2024) | |||||||||||||||
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| Sources: French AIP, airport's annual report and French AIP at EUROCONTROL | |||||||||||||||
Basel–Mulhouse International Airport (French: Aéroport de Bâle-Mulhouse), commercially known as EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg (IATA: BSL, MLH, EAP, ICAO: LFSB) or simply EuroAirport, is a Franco-Swiss international airport located in France, in the administrative commune of Saint-Louis, Hésingue, and Blotzheim, in the French Alsace part of the Trinational Eurodistrict of Basel. It is 4.7 km (2.9 mi) west of the tripoint of France, Germany, and Switzerland, 3.5 km (2.2 mi) northwest of the city of Basel in Switzerland, 20 km (12 mi) southeast of Mulhouse in France, and 46 km (29 mi) south-southwest of Freiburg im Breisgau in Germany. The airport is jointly administered by France and Switzerland, governed by a 1949 international convention. It is the only binational airport in the world. The airport serves as a base for easyJet Switzerland and mainly features flights to European metropolitan and leisure destinations.
Plans for the construction of a joint Swiss–French airport started in the 1930s but were halted by the Second World War. Swiss planners identified Basel as one of the four cities for which a main urban airport would be developed and recognized that the existing airfield at Sternenfeld in Birsfelden was too small and, due to the development of the adjacent river port facilities, unsuitable for expansion. The suburb of Allschwil was proposed for a new airport, and this would require being constructed across the Franco-Swiss border, leading to talks with French authorities centered on developing a single airport that would serve both countries, enhancing its international airport status.
The first enlargement project was approved by referendum in Basel in 1960 and, over the following decades, the terminals and runways were continually extended. The north–south runway was extended further to 3,900 m (12,800 ft) in 1972. In 1984, an annual total of 1 million passengers was reached. In 1987, the trademark name EuroAirport Basel–Mulhouse–Freiburg was introduced.
In December 1998, Swissair inaugurated service to Newark using Airbus A310s. The main reason it launched the route was that it had heard another carrier was planning to begin flights from Basel to Newark; Swissair wanted to start flying the route before the other airline did. The company also hoped to attract people working for the pharmaceutical companies in Basel. Crossair, a subsidiary of Swissair, code-shared on the flight. The carrier operated a hub at the EuroAirport, from which it flew to 40 regional destinations.
Swissair terminated the flight to Newark in March 2000, saying it suffered from low occupancy. The local newspaper bz Basel commented that the airline did not advertise it well.
From 2007 until 2009, Ryanair also flew to the airport for the first time. However, as a result of a dispute over landing fees, the airline closed all eight routes. More recently Ryanair announced it would return in April 2014, with the resumption of Basel–Dublin route as well as a short-lived revival of the Basel – London–Stansted route. Ryanair added a Basel-Zagreb route in December 2021.
In May 2008, Air Transat commenced seasonal service to Montreal. The airline flew an Airbus A310 on the route.[citation needed] In December 2014, Swiss International Air Lines announced it would cease all operations at Basel by 31 May 2015 due to heavy competition from low-cost carriers. Swiss faced direct competition on five out of its six Basel routes, all of which were operated by Swiss Global Air Lines. The Lufthansa Group announced it would set up Eurowings' first base outside Germany at the EuroAirport as a replacement. However these plans were later cancelled in favour of Vienna Airport.
In January 2017, the removal of Basel/Mulhouse from Air Berlin and its Swiss subsidiary Belair's route networks was announced.
The airport is advancing major infrastructure upgrades, including its first onsite hotel project, recent runway refurbishments, a planned €130 million terminal expansion, and a future direct railway link targeted for service by 2034/2035.


EuroAirport is one of the few airports in the world operated jointly by two countries, in this case France and Switzerland. It is governed by a 1949 international convention. The headquarters of the airport's operations are located in Blotzheim, France. The airport is located completely on French soil; it also has a Swiss customs border and is connected to Basel by a 2.5-kilometre (1.6 mi) long customs-free road, allowing air travellers access into Switzerland without undergoing a French customs check. The airport is operated via a state treaty established in 1946 wherein the two countries (Switzerland and France) are granted access to the airport without any customs or other border restrictions. The airport's board has eight members each from France and Switzerland and two advisers from Germany.
The airport building is split into two separate sections: Swiss and French. Though the entire airport is on French soil and under French jurisdiction, the Swiss authorities have the authority to apply Swiss laws regarding customs, medical services and police work in the Swiss section, including the road to Basel. French police are allowed to execute random checks in the Swiss section as well. With Switzerland joining the Schengen Treaty in March 2009, the air side was rearranged to include a Schengen and non-Schengen zone. As border control is staffed by both Swiss and French border officers, passengers arriving from non-Schengen countries must approach the customs office of the country for which they have received the Schengen entry visa, which is either France or Switzerland.
Due to its international status, EuroAirport has three IATA airport codes: BSL (Basel) is the Swiss code, MLH (Mulhouse) is the French code. EAP (EuroAirport) is the code for the "Metropolitan Area Basel". Some booking systems show different ticket prices for flights to BSL and MLH, as one of them can be a domestic flight within France (with different rules on fuel taxation, etc.), and in some cases, tickets can be issued where a "flight" between BSL and MLH is shown on the itinerary. The airport's ICAO airport code is LFSB. LSZM, the old code, has been reassigned to the airfield of Mollis.
In 2020, a French court decided that job contracts on the airport are governed by French labor laws, not Swiss ones. Basing on a 2012 agreement, the Swiss companies active on the airport have used Swiss labor regulations, which are more employer-friendly than the French ones. In exchange, working under Swiss laws results in much higher wages.
The EuroAirport consists of a single terminal building, a brick-style main area with four levels and the Y-shaped gate area attached to it. The basement (Level 1) contains the access to the car park, the ground level (Level 2) features the arrivals facilities. Level 3 is the check-in area divided into halls 1–4 while the departure gates are located at Level 4. The gate area features gates 1–2, 20–46, 60–61 and 78–87 of which gates 22–32 are used for non-Schengen flights. Six of the boarding gates feature jet bridges, the others are used for walk- or bus-boarding. The entry and exit area is divided into French and Swiss parts.
The following airlines offer regular scheduled and charter flights at the EuroAirport:
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Korean Air Cargo | Seoul–Incheon, Vienna |
| Qatar Airways Cargo | Doha |
| Rank | Airport | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pristina | 284,309 | 253,805 | 201,715 | 103,806 | 158,867 | 138,668 | 115,066 | 105,338 |
| 2 | Amsterdam | 178,776 | 137,704 | 50,288 | 56,954 | 222,480 | 219,746 | 210,215 | 206,986 |
| 3 | Istanbul–Sabiha Gökçen | 157,419 | 123,097 | 77,204 | 47,625 | 103,528 | 87,709 | 78,588 | 70,338 |
| 4 | Barcelona | 134,424 | 126,305 | 55,043 | 33,727 | 177,693 | 179,538 | 173,414 | 170,492 |
| 5 | Palma de Mallorca | 134,345 | 121,081 | 74,794 | 26,692 | 153,240 | 172,534 | 182,496 | 155,949 |
| 6 | London–Heathrow | 134,225 | 85,406 | 7,228 | 28,202 | 140,676 | 140,289 | 129,091 | 126,362 |
| 7 | Antalya | 116,426 | 102,593 | 41,213 | 28,639 | 75,789 | |||
| 8 | Budapest | 112,128 | 102,377 | 37,241 | 32,234 | 124,652 | 89,290 | ||
| 9 | Porto | 107,450 | 101,608 | 65,625 | 54,460 | 108,173 | 108,106 | 106,307 | 103,998 |
| 10 | London–Gatwick | 102,422 | 110,952 | 14,213 | 33,326 | 143,672 | 141,380 | 138,051 | 135,895 |

The airport is connected to motorway A3 which leads from Basel to the southeast of Switzerland passing Zürich.[citation needed]
There are several bus connections to and from the EuroAirport to all three countries around it:
As of 2021, the closest train station is the Saint-Louis-la-Chaussée station, some 900 m (3,000 ft) north of the terminal. Plans to build a dedicated airport rail link have existed for some time. However, political delays have pushed the earliest operating date to 2035.
In 2025 approximately 60,000 properties in 11 communes surrounding to the airport were told their tap water had been contaminated with PFAS from EuroAirport. The local authorities advised that children under two years old, pregnant or breastfeeding women and people with weak immune systems should not to drink the tap water due to the levels of PFAS present.
The PFAS contamination originated from fire fighting foam used at the airport before 2017. Cleanup can cost up to 20 million euro but it is unclear who has to pay this.
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Media related to Bâle-Mulhouse Airport at Wikimedia Commons