ngfraujoch in the Bernese Oberland, at an altitude of 3,454 meters (11,330 ft.)MobilityThe country is covered with a dense road network, although the topography makes thisdifficult. The mountains and gorges have to be negotiated and bridges and tunnels mustbe built. A lot of money is invested in road construction and a high standard ofmaintenance. Car ownership is high: in 2000 for every 1000 people there were about 500cars But the Swiss can get around even without their own car. The famous Swiss postbuses are an important part of the public transport system. They reckon that the distancethey cover every day is equivalent to travelling five times round the earth. Buses tie inwith train arrivals and departures, and serve remote villages, even though they sometimescarry only one passenger.Air TravelSwitzerland's main airport is at Kloten, just outside Zurich. There are also major airportsattached to Geneva and Basle. The former is built partly on French territory, and thelatter, which is shared with the French city of Mulhouse and the German city of Freiburg,is completely within France. Berne and Lugano have smaller airports from which flightscan be taken to a number of European cities. In addition there are numerous smallcivilian airports all over Switzerland. The airport in Samedan, near St Moritz in theGrisons, is the highest in Europe, at 1707 meters (5,600 feet) above sea level. Kloten,now run by the private Unique company, in 2000 embarked on an expansion programmeto strengthen its position as a European hub. However, the strategy was called intoquestion by the drastic restructuring of the Swissair Group in October 2001 and a sharpdownturn in predicted passenger numbers. The airport currently handles 23 millionpassengers a year and also handles three quarters of the country's air freight.Quality of the workSwitzerland has virtually no mineral resources and a restricted surface area. It dependsfor its wealth on foreign trade. The re...
