France VFR has recently released their rendition of EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg (LFSB) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, serving three different cities in three countries due to its strategic location near the border tripoint between France, Germany, and Switzerland. 

Dating back to the mid-1940s, the airport was part of a Swiss-French plan to build a joint airport, which almost started in the 1930s but was shattered by a looming World War. Once the dust had finally settled, around 1946, they went on with the project, with the French providing the land and the Swiss covering the construction costs. It was officially opened in May of that year, with a provisional runway (1,200m long). The runway saw expansion work in the 50s, 60s, and 70s when it finally reached its current length (3,900 meters). 

Basel reached the 1 million passenger/year mark in 1984, doubling down in 1992 and rising to 3 million in 1998 when Swissair inaugurated their service to Newark with their A310s and A330s. 

In the 2000s, Swissair started facing financial issues, resulting in the extinguishment of the Newark route, with the company following suit a year later, causing a drop in passenger activity as it was the largest operator in Basel. It wasn’t until 2004 when easyJet embraced the airport as their new base and brought the passenger figures to an incredible 4 million in 2006. 

As a curiosity, Basel is one of the few airports in the world operated by two countries and governed by an international convention. The airport and its HQ are in France, but it features a Swiss customs area and border, with a 2.5km customs-free road to Basel, bypassing French clearance. But it goes even further than that, as the airport building is split in two, with a French and Swiss section under their own rules. It also sports three (!) IATA codes: BSL, MLH, and EAP.

The passenger figures currently sit at 9 million passengers yearly, with a huge part of them transported by EasyJet Switzerland (Basel is one of their hubs), with a massive intra-European network. Corendon and WizzAir also offer their fair share of destinations. It’s also visited by many mainstream European carriers such as Austrian Airlines, British Airways, KLM, and Lufthansa.

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with high-resolution ground textures, detailed ground markings, photo-realistic 3D buildings, realistic night lighting, custom jetways, custom vegetation, and geo-referenced data. 

It’s available on SimMarket for roughly $8.76, requiring at least 534.78 MB of free disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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