Eighty years ago, forests and a moor were cleared to make way for the construction of Zurich Airport’s first runway. Today, around 750 aircraft take off and land at the international airport each day. A consortium of engineers and architects chose the partly wooded moorland area of the Kloten-Bülach military training area north of Zurich as the site of a new civil airport. In 1943, the Federal Military Department agreed to relinquish the military training area "in the greater national interest".