Sion Airport PC-6, Pilatus PC-7, Pilatus PC-9 and Pilatus PC-21 as well as helicopters it uses Sion intensively with the fighter jets F/A-18 and F-5 Tiger. It is the home base of the militia pilot unit Fliegerstaffel 19 Swans with F-5E. Sion Airport is, at both ends of the runway, equipped with retractable arresting gear devices (used by the F/A-18 and in case of a problem by the F-5). Because of the redimension of the Swiss Air Force it is planned that the Air Force will leave Sion after 2017 and Sion will be used by civil aviation only, acting only as
Lauda Sion Lauda Sion "Lauda Sion Salvatorem" is a sequence prescribed for the Roman Catholic Mass for the feast of Corpus Christi. It was written by St. Thomas Aquinas around 1264, at the request of Pope Urban IV for the new Mass of this feast, along with "Pange lingua", "Sacris solemniis", "Adoro te devote", and "Verbum supernum prodiens", which are used in the Divine Office. The Gregorian melody of the "Lauda Sion" is borrowed from the eleventh-century sequence "Laetabundi iubilemus" attributed to Adam of Saint Victor. The hymn tells of the institution of the Eucharist and clearly expresses the belief of the