Foundation and early years 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. In 1946 talks resumed and it was agreed that an airport would be built north of
Blotzheim, France. France would provide the land and the Swiss canton of
Basel-Stadt would cover the construction costs. Basel-Stadt's
Grand Council agreed to pay the costs for a provisional airport even before an international treaty was signed (which was not until 1949). Construction began on 8 March 1946 and a provisional airport with a runway was officially opened on 8 May. Between autumn 1951 and spring 1953, the east–west runway was extended to and the "Zollfreistrasse" () (customs-free road) was constructed, allowing access from Basel to the departure terminal without passing through French border controls. 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 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 1992 a total of 2 million passengers used the airport. By 1998, this number rose up to 3 million. 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.
Development in the 2000s 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. 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. 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. ==International status==