Zurich Airport

Be aware when shopping at the Zurich Airport Duty Free Shop! The price tags of items at Zurich Airport Duty Free Shop are marked below the actual price you will pay at the cashier. I wonder if anyone regulates those shops since a lot of people end up paying surprisingly more (up to 40% ) than the advertised price. Next time you are there making a purchase pay attention to the price you are charged and you will see. If one complains about it the employee just shows you a sign stating that only the CHF prices are valid. Like I am supposed to read every little disclaimer when doing some quick shopping before boarding my flight? So why post the prices also in Euro and Pounds then? Since those are the price tags in question the ones marked way lower than what you will pay. Is it a gimmick to lure shoppers to load up their basket? That is one answer I would like to know myself.

Excellent. Quiet efficient clean well-equipped. Everything works. Lots of shops etc but not in your face (MAN take note). Non-Schengen side a bit more basic.

The airport is an excellent gateway to Switzerland and one of the best transfer airports in Europe. Great access by all means of transport nice and helpful staff clean interior. However one big drawback: the time-consuming (up to 20 minutes!) security check is always the last step before the boarding even for passengers in transit. That means there is no option for stressless duty-free shopping or relax in the lounge. Once you pass through the security check you will probably have much free time waiting in one of the gate areas but the facilities there are restricted to one expensive bar or coffee shop. I hope they will rearrange it one day.

Now Switzerland is in Schengen the transfer through Zurich is not so easy for those of us in non-Schengen countries. You tend to get stuffed into the B terminal (all bus gates) which has minimal facilities beyond security. You also dont get to use the nice Swiss lounge in the main terminal - although the B gate lounge is spacious and usually quiet it is the wrong side of security and the queues can be very long. The intercontinental gates are a train ride away and again you can be stuck in a queue for security at busy times. There is a lot of building work going on so I hope they will sort out the problems as Zurich was my favourite airport in Europe to transit through.

No queues passport officer said good morning. The staff at the gate smiled and wished me a pleasant trip. When the display said 'boarding' the flight actually was boarding. The toilets were spotless. The public transport links were spacious and uncrowded.

Transited from LYS to ORD in ZRH on LX. Typical efficiency. When our small jet from Lyon to Zurich landed it was met by two buses such that those of us in the front of the cabin did not have to wait for the other passengers to disembark. Effortless passport control process. Made a 65 minute international connection easily. My only criticism were the Swiss Air departure gate staff who were generally curt and disorganized. Nevertheless Zurich remains my airport of choice in Europe.

It's a big place and be aware that the signs indicating 20 minutes to the E gates mean what they say. The E gates are a long way from check in requiring various up and down escalators and a train trip (complete with piped birdsong and cow noises!) but the signs are clear and easy to follow. Security was quick and courteous. Only small criticism is that our flight was slightly delayed and an announcement by the gate staff of the reason and the expected duration of the delay would have been appreciated. The previous flight on the route (ZRH-LCY) had been cancelled and some of the passengers from the cancelled flight were understandably starting to get irritated. The staff could have saved themselves a bit of hassle if they'd announced what was happening.

The airport was great. Clean efficient and with helpful staff. Even toilets were clean. Good connection to the city centre might be the fast train or the slightly cheaper and slower tram.

I must concur with the review about the lack of air conditioning. The airport can be quite warm. The airport has a lot of construction underway due to Switzerland joining the Schengen accord. This includes work on the train to Terminal E. We rode the train from Terminal E on arrival from ORD however when departing we had to ride a bus to the Terminal E train station then take an escalator down to the train station so we could take the escalator up to the departure level. Be aware that there's not much in Terminal E and no Swiss Lounge - except for time for clearing the pointless duplicate security for US travel don't go out there earlier than you have to. Even with the construction connecting to and from flights to Germany was quick. The lounge space for flights from gates A 1 through 10 is limited especially once you go down to the lower level. Even with the construction the airport is efficient but fewer bus gates and better air conditioning would help.

I was all set to add to the praises heaped on ZRH until I approached my gate. I was on an easyJet flight heading back to Luton and while I am used to be treated non-Shengen at various European airports when I reached Gates B23-32 I felt that I had been slammed into jail. These basement gates are also served by Swiss Int'l flights to London and Moscow for which pax are shuttled by bus. The area is dismal exacerbated by the low ceilings and minimal natural light. Seating space is limited. What made my experience so bad is that the various flights using these gates were heavily delayed by bad weather so there was a considerable crush of humanity. Matters were worsened by the fact that the Go to Gate indication on the monitor was only changed to Flight Delayed just 25 minutes before scheduled departure time and immediately after I had gone past the point of no return at security.