Zurich Airport Reviews 

To the lady at E gates Passport control (departures) who joined other 2 colleagues and started a new queue (15 April 2024 around 16:30-16:50)- want to say Shame On You! for not allowing us with our disabled child who was out of control and couldn't stay in queues to go in front of the queue - I told you several times that my child has a mental disability and can't stay in the queue and you told me that you can't do anything and that I had to go and ask the queue. I just wish you never had the issue I am going through! What a miserable piece of a human being!!!

Love Zurich airport compared to Geneva. So much more efficient and user friendly.

However, one quibble was passport control wasted most of a page of my passport when stamping my exit stamp.

If one consistently stamps horizontally one can fit 4 round trips per passport page (8 flights). The way it was stamped I will be lucky to fit 2 round trips (four flights). Serious mistake when every trip EU/CH requires two stamps... 7apr24 17:45.

The staff asked so many questions of the people of colour at this airport, including us. They asked us about where we were staying, why and how, and it was utterly embarrassing. These questions should be on an entry card. We had to show our boarding passes several times and we are a mature group of women so we didn’t understand why. The man at the counter said he was asking us questions because we hadn’t checked in, but I pointed out that we had and that’s why we had our boarding passes. The people behind us noticed as well, they were very shocked, it was ridiculous. Because of the delay the line to exit was 2 hours long and many people were delayed. Very difficult and prejudice staff who need to remember that tourists bring in business and help the country’s economy.

We flew with Swiss Air from India to Brussels with a transfer in Zurich. The first flight from Mumbai was delayed, so after spending over 10 hours on the plane, we hoped for a smooth transfer.

And here in the corridor, just like that, three policemen were waiting, checking tickets and passports of several hundred tired people. Many people counted on an efficient transfer (1.20 hours for us), so the unexpected inspection, with all its slowness and rudeness, started to cause frustration and nervousness. But that was only a beginning.

After the policemen, the security was checked as it is always done BEFORE the flight. I have never been checked AFTER a flight before. Only two lines for checking were available for several hundred people. Passengers were checked very thoroughly and turned back, regardless of their discomfort after a long flight and the lack of an available toilet.

The fact that many passengers were just passing through at this airport did not play any role for the staff and, as I know, many people missed their transfers. When I asked if the flight to Brussels would be delayed because we were being held too long, I heard a short 'no'.

After reaching the plane in sprint style, we were graciously allowed to board, but there were passengers (from another flight) who were 90 seconds late and this is where Swiss precision worked: they were not allowed to board. It is not the end. Our plane didn't leave as planed but was considerably delayed because they were looking for some suitcases. Maybe ours because they didn't reach Brussels. The last time I had such a circus was in the 1990s, when I was flying through Turkey to the Balkans and my luggage constantly landed in Moscow.

I haven't seen such nonsense in a long time. In addition, the rudeness and haughtiness of the Swiss. Therefore, I definitely do not recommend Zurich airport or Swiss Air when it comes to large transports. They better stay a local airport because they have neither the skills nor the infrastructure to handle flights with large numbers of passengers.

Prepare for long delays at security and passport control.

Allow at least an hour to clear, staff are rude managing the queues. Otherwise airport is great, but for a travel experience I’ll avoid Zürich next time.

Otherwise airport facilities 10/10.

Utter chaos clearing passport control..OUTBOUND! Queue wrapping around departure lounge..taking about an hour or

Bad service. Baggage drop off slower than checkin. Only 2 counters open so luggage could not be loaded anymore. Unfriendly and incompetent. Became worst Airport. What a pity.

Airport full of children that thanks to imbecile parents scream and shout and run everywhere. Shops close at 7, they do not care if your flight is late if it is leaving late or other. They just close shops. This is maybe why they charge 6 fr for a bottle of half Liter of water. Elsewhere with 6 fr you buy 9 liters of water. Terminal E is even more a shame, people smoking vape in the halls, toilets you have to climb two stories, staff do not care about noisy people, children running everywhere. They just announce gate at the last minute since they want you to shop instead of fly. It was right the famous Swiss pilot when he said this airport is a s@@@. This is not Switzerland and I feel ashamed of living here. Avoid

Very bad customer service!!! We arrived with Edelweiss from Egypt and had to catch our connection flight to Edinburgh, had only 20min. Unfortunately there was very slow moving queue, only one lane was open, on the hand luggage scan. When we asked if we can skip the queue we were told to ask all the passengers ahead of us. We didn’t do we caught our flight. We will try to avoid Zurich Airport next time.

We are living in Zurich and the airport is probably one of the very few disappointments here. Checkin is extremely slow and so is security! Besides this my parents got some Lindt Nutella blocked today even though it was dark and wasn’t liquid at all. It was also sealed. In a country where so much is invested in the environment, they don’t seem to find it a priority to invest in a machine that they can test for security and let these goods through. They rather waste tons of goods that goes in the rubbish. Obviously because the service was so slow my parents had no time to return to hand me the things. Very disappointing and a huge let down

The ladies, especially Nathalie at check-in and baggage claim, have a high level of arrogance, are very unfriendly and very patronizing! They laugh ironically, have an ironic gesture and show themselves as if they were something better. Just because one speaks German less well? So my mood for traveling was destroyed by their behavior. Never again I would like to see such ladies especially Nathalie before my trip!

I can’t imagine how a developed country is developed but the staffs are undeveloped.

Cheking 1 bording personal unfreundlich☹️

Huge airport, with too many check in counters, but only a few of them are actually working which causes a huge waiting line and a lot of stress among passengers.

It is pretty easy to get lost on this airport, especially after you pass the security. It is also definitely the most expensive airport in Europe. Nothing is worth buying here.

If you have lost baggage that you need to claim, it's quite difficult to enter if you have previously exited the airport. You need to ring an intercom where you need to say a lot of personal details in front of a lot of other people that are also waiting for someone to come down and open the door which is locked, of course.

One guy at the Lost&Found counter was absolutely irritating, always laughing in your face, not answering basic questions, and overall not helpful at all.

Flying biz class swiss, sat quietly in the senator lounge, the monitor said the flight was not boarding yet, no announcements. So I wandered off 1 hour before departure towards E gates. Massive queue for passport control - auto gates not working. Inexplicably they had the same number of officers working arrivals with 10 passengers as departures with 500+. So total chaos. Very officious organisers, no ability to prioritise people with immediate departures. I made it 7 minutes before the departure, having run through the terminal. Others I am sure missed their flights. I had even (for the first time in 30 years) subscribed to real time updates from Zurich airport - which also didn't say massive queues, in fact it said nothing. All in all very surprising, I thought Zurich/Swiss was well organised. I had flown from Paris - which now runs like Swiss clockwork, unlike Zurich.

My airport experience was ok apart from being very expensive. But when boarding my flight to Dublin, I had an unpleasant passport control encounter. The officer, who had a rude and interrogative tone, insisted I should present a Visa or Residence permit for Ireland. When I protested, as I have presented a valid Croatian passport, which does not require such documents either for Switzerland or Ireland, she made a move as she is going to withhold my passport to let me know who's in charge. Eventually she let me through when I said it was a return flight, but kept insisting on a visa and residence permit! They don't seem to care that I even can't have such a document as it's only for non-eu countries!

I am a frequent Europe traveler and I have never anywhere had such bad treatment from the police!

I have written to the Zurich airport but they said that Zurich Cantonal Police is in charge of the passport controls. So unless there is an explanation or apology for this harassment from this 3rd party service (see below) I am going to avoid Zurich airport in the future.

Update: I had a conversation going over email with Cantonal police, they were polite and concluded some 3rd party company is in charge of gate passport control. The query is gone to them. If there is clarification or apology from them, I will update my review.

Usually quite good and comfortable but recently have major issues to cope with the number of passengeres at peak times.

This is the most expensive airport in Europe, and still they fired too much staff during pandemic and now have issues to provide an appropriate service level again.

Quick check in, loved the VIP Parking services as well! Will fly again from here!

Nowadays it is expected that travellers arrive at airports 2h before departure. However, there are times at this airport when it gets busy and this time period doesn’t seem enough, at least to avoid clients from freaking out! Security officers could take some exceptions into consideration, in case a particular traveller risks losing his/her flight, by giving the traveller a quicker pass through the security lines. This procedure, for example, is quite common in Manchester UK airport

Many trips. Clean and nice