The Aero Club of Switzerland’s legal complaint against what it calls “excessive” flight restrictions for civil aviation during the tournament has been rejected by a club spokesman announced this morning.

The Federal Administrative Court made a provisional ruling against the complaint because of the imminence of the start of the tournament and the sensitive measures being taken, club spokesman Juerg Wyss said.

Swiss lawmakers agreed that civil flights should be restricted near stadiums before, during and after matches in the
four host cities of Zurich, Berne, Basel and Geneva.

A 22-kilometre exclusion zone will be in place around the stadiums in which aircraft will not be allowed to descend below 3,000 metres. At the opening match in Basel the zone will be extended to 45 kilometres.

The creation of special flight corridors for observation drones will also hamper flights, Mr Wyss said.

“Less drastic measures would have been enough,” he added.

“Some airports will be essentially shut down which could have enormous economic consequences for flight schools, sightseeing flight firms and other airport users.”

“The flight restrictions for the tournament are far more intrusive than those for similar events in the past such as the World Economic Forum (in Davos),” Mr Wyss said.