Our story starts in the desert.
1969
On 21 July 1969 a Zimex aircraft lands between two sand dunes in Africa.
The day before, Apollo 11 had landed on the Moon. Neither crew had a runway.
Hannes Ziegler founds Zimex, flying for his own import and export business.
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1970s
Zimex builds its business where the roads end: oil fields in Libya and Algeria, and survey and supply flying across Africa.
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Since then
1980s
Big aircraft, bigger jobs.
Two Lockheed L-100-30 Hercules join the fleet for heavy cargo and relief work, including Red Cross flights in Angola.
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1987
In memoriam
On 14 October 1987 our Hercules HB-ILF, flying for the ICRC, was shot down near Kuito, Angola. Six people on board and two on the ground lost their lives.
1980s
Wasps from the sky.
A Zimex twin turboprop is fitted with a purpose-built dispenser for a very unusual cargo: parasitic wasps. For IITA’s biological control programme, Zimex crews release them over the cassava fields of sub-Saharan Africa, between the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. The wasps work, and the cassava, a staple food for millions, is saved.
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1990s
Business aviation and beyond.
Zimex flies UN charters and executive aircraft, and in 1995 sets up a joint venture with British Aerospace to develop business aviation in Russia. In 1999 the company is sold to a Swiss investor group, with Hannes Ziegler staying on the board.
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2010
First with the new Twin Otter.
Launch customer for the DHC-6-400, the first new-build Twin Otter in more than 20 years. HB-LUX is handed over at Farnborough.
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2015
New owners, same address.
Private investors from aviation and finance take over the company. Guy Girard becomes chairman. Daniele Cereghetti arrives as CFO and becomes CEO in 2018.
2017
Floats, and a former president.
Zimex becomes an EASA-approved float operator, flying Twin Otters between Copenhagen and Aarhus for Nordic Seaplanes. In French Polynesia, a freshly refurbished Twin Otter starts flying to The Brando. One of the first passengers is Barack Obama.
2019
Fifty.
250 guests from around the world celebrate at the Air Force Center in Dübendorf. Our ATR 42 flies in formation with the Swiss Air Force PC-7 Team. We also publish a book: A Passion for Flying.
2020
The long way to Tahiti.
A Twin Otter flies from Altenrhein to Tahiti: 12 legs, 82 flight hours, 19 days, in the middle of a pandemic.
2022
Relief, north and south.
Our ATR 42 flies Red Cross aid to the Ukrainian border. A Twin Otter crosses the North Atlantic to serve the UN humanitarian air service in Haiti. In Sweden we fly a postal network on 39% sustainable aviation fuel.
2023
Denmark calls.
An eight-year contract to supply surveillance Twin Otters to the Danish Ministry of Defence. At the Paris Air Show we order two Twin Otter Classic 300-Gs.
2024
Hugin and Munin.
The Danish aircraft enter service. In their first year they fly 150 missions.
2026
First again.
The first Twin Otter Classic 300-G for an EASA operator arrives at Altenrhein and flies its first mission. Denmark orders a third surveillance aircraft.