to a three-runway system with paved taxiways. The staggered design meant that it was possible to react to changes without having to impose a complete halt to construction. Construction works finally began on 5 May 1946 with the diversion of the Altbach stream. The 1900 m long West Runway 10/28 was the first runway which was opened on 14 June 1948, and on which the first Swissair Douglas DC-4 took off for London. On behalf of the canton as airport owner, Cantonal Councillor Jakob Kägi gave a speech to mark the inauguration of the new runway and the start of provisional flight operations. Shortly after, on 17 November 1948, the 2600 m long blind runway 16/34 (runway with instrument landing system) was opened for operation, which was attended by the seven members of the cantonal government. In the presence of invited guests from politics and the media as well as representatives of the construction companies and airlines, the new airport was inaugurated, which meant that the relocation of the entire civil flight operations from Dübendorf to Kloten had already been completed and full operation could begin at the new Zurich Airport. The 1535 m long Bisen runway 02/20, which belonged to the three-runway system of 1948, was of little importance. Due to the applicable crosswind regulations at that time, the runway was designed to face the Bise in order to guarantee the airport's all-weather capability. However, the ICAO increased the crosswind tolerances for aircraft in subsequent revisions to such an extent that the runway was decommissioned after just over ten years. First stage of construction: structural engineering The character of a provisional solution was supported - despite full operation - by the lack of buildings, especially the "Flughof", which had been planned since 1946. Instead, a growing shanty town stood to the east of the reserved building site. On 27 October 1948, the canton outsourced the development, construction and operation of the buildings to the newly founded "Flughafen-Immobilien-Gesellschaft" (FIG), a mixed-economy public limited company in which the public sector held half of the shares (canton of Zürich 22.5%, city of Zürich 18%, "Zürcher Kantonalbank" 5%, city of Winterthur 3.6% and municipality of Kloten 0.9%). The FIG took over projects that had been started and was thus able to hand over the completed "shipyard I" to Swissair for use as early as late autumn 1948, followed by offices for Swissair's technical