The airport authorities record flight movements (take-offs and landings) and passenger numbers each month, and send the data to the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA). This information is primarily used for organising the workflow at airports (flight safety, check-in, passenger information etc.) and for calculating airport charges. The purpose of the air traffic (commercial or non-commercial) is differentiated at the same time. Commercial air traffic is made up of scheduled flights, charter flights, taxi flights and sightseeing flights. These are largely handled at the national and regional airports, as well as at heliports, and have shown a steady decrease over the last few years (2000 – 2016: -8%). In addition to this, non-commercial air traffic also operates on airfields. This includes private flights for the purpose of leisure activities, sports or business without paying passengers.
Differentiating air traffic according to the type of aircraft can indicate which runways operate motorised and non-motorised aircraft. Furthermore, aircraft are also classified as fixed-wing aircraft or helicopters. Fixed-wing aircraft can additionally be subdivided into aeroplanes, power gliders, and gliders. In total, the Swiss aircraft register recorded 3414 registered aircraft in Switzerland in 2016. Just over half of these were motorised aircraft, followed by gliders, free balloons and helicopters. The number of aeroplanes fell slightly between 2000 and 2016 (-9%). However, the number of helicopters increased by 33% during the same period of time.