Zurich Airport

Not Verified | This is the second time in 3 month I choose Zurich airport for transfer and this might be the last time. While I understand that anyone can have a bad experience but it seems that this airport lacks any normal organization. No organisation, 2 immigration officer for 2 full planes. Long waiting everywhere, zero organization in boarding. Also do not understand that when obviously short of staff no automation in immigration process. The management would be wise to travel to other country and see what a little organization can achieve in efficiency.

✅ Trip Verified | Saturday, mid-morning, terminal 1, Swiss flight - A baggage drop-off counter for home-printed baggage labels is in use, with assistance. Time it took to check baggage: 3 minutes, incl a chat with the friendly Swissport staff. No line at all. Security check (economy class line) ca. 7 minutes. All staff was easy-going and friendly here. Plenty of time for coffee airside. A brief check (no line) at Schengen passport control. Our flight was leaving slightly late but no reason was given, maybe baggage loading with staff shortage. Airport is very clean. Coffee shops in the boarding pier were expensive, as is everything in this airport, but our overall impression was first-rate. Some airlines, excluding the ones going to the US (what else?) offer this fast bag drop off option. If you cannot print your labels at home you can use machines in the terminal.

✅ Trip Verified | Worst airport in Europe for international transit, avoid like the plague. Traveling from Rome to Miami via Zürich with Swiss was a pleasant onboard experience but transferring in Zurich is shockingly painful. Imagine terrible third world airport multiply by 10 and that is Zürich when transferring internationally. Ridiculously long queues to passport control which is served by a single escalator despite thousands transiting at the same time. Overcrowded trains connecting to Terminal E that you get onto and out of on the same side exacerbating the crowd hysterics. Inappropriately staffed additional passport control queues that do not respect or enforce priority lines for first and business. All flights have to depart late or leave hundreds behind because of the congestion. Poorly designed facilities that are wholly inadequate to handle the passenger volume ensuring everyone a taste of disorganized chaos. This was the last thing I expected at a Swiss airport, what all went so horribly wrong?

✅ Trip Verified | Our experience was overall ok, but I think this is only because it wasn't busy. Getting there was easy on the train from Zurich central. When we arrived, we were able to use the showers at customer services. The worker was agreeable and had good language diversity. The showers were clean and provided with nice hair & body products. The water was hot and No time constraints were imposed. From there, it went downhill ... 2 drinks and a yoghurt was nearly 30 francs ($45 AUD), on the ridiculous side really We went to check in and got told by security there was no access to Check-in 1 and to go to Check in 3 (2 floors below) When we hot there, this is baggage drop off only. The attendant was quite nice and processes our tickets, but since we had backpacks - you need to use Check-in 1. So went back up to the 3rd level just to get a run around the multiple counters to get bag tags for backpacks. At about 6pm, the service counters dropped from about 8 to 3 ... so will let you imagine the queue from that time on. Since we weren't on a mobile network, we had to go hunting down a kiosk to access the airport WiFi. We only found 2 locations to get our access tokens, so look for the information booths to get access. Potable drinking water was impossible to find. Only 1 fountain was located throughout the terminal to fill personal bottles. Purchasing a bottle of water is nearly $10 AUD. The setup is such that a hot summer afternoon sun just bakes you in most of the available bars and for most of the airport itself, so we retreated to an obscure part of the airport to get away from the heat. Hope it's nicer in winter. Very few seating options had power up access so many people are sitting on concrete floors around the terminal. Market place was a good and probably cheapest option for dinner, but still over $60 AUD for a couple if Bratwurst and veggies (no drinks). Overall, I expected better from such a big international airport.

✅ Trip Verified | 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 the police I am going to avoid Zurich airport in the future.

Not Verified | I arrived after a 15 hour flight from Tokyo and was transiting on my way to Johannesburg. The layover was 4 hours and after disembarking I ended up in the area where the Johannesburg flight was departing from. I forget the name of the gate area but it was away from the main terminal. To be honest it was very quiet and there wasn't much to do. There were a couple of small duty free shops selling Swiss goods a Pret and a Starbucks. I spent most of the 4 hours drinking coffee at Pret. I probably should have tried to see if I could have gone to the main terminal but was tired. However it was clean and the staff were friendly and polite.

Not Verified | Holiday Trip to Portugal. I like my home airport. Easy access by train from the city train station within 15 minutes. After dropping off luggage you either decide to pass security and have an (expensive) espresso or you enjoy the shops or the unique visitors terrace. Airport is very clean and usually not too crowded if you don't go at very peak times. On the way back, luggage came within minutes, very efficient handling.

Not Verified | I wish to share my recent experience when going through security checks at Zurich airport. After walking through the person scanner, a male security officer looked down on me and loudly asked me if I spoke English in a long emphasised way DO-YOU-SPEAK-EN-GLI-SH while his female colleague laughed at me. He showed me how to hold my hands up so that he could check both sides with a handheld device. Once this was over, he bossily told me off for reaching out to my suitcase that was standing just next to me (on the floor), he said he had not told me to move. Then immediately (1 second) after, he said I could go. I felt intimidated by him and ridiculed by both officers at the same time. I believe that this kind of behaviour is abusive of the officers' power. As a frequent traveller, I am used to security checks in different countries, this is the first time I felt disrespected and hope that by reporting this instance, Zurich airport will improve its passengers' experience. Many thanks.

✅ Trip Verified | Appalling chaos and long immigration lines at passport control! More than 1 hour? UK passport holder: I will avoid doing business here as this is the last thing a busy investor needs.

✅ Trip Verified | Not recommendable: little and unfriendly personnel, long waiting queues for dirty restrooms, long queues for just a coffee. But absolutely a catastrophe was that the queues for the restrooms, the coffee shops and the boarding are not separated somehow but intertwined, no room to move at. I'm not interested in airport architecture but also couldn't see anything that would be worth the hype about this airport. Soundproofing at least was definitely not on the architect's agenda - it is a very noisy airport. Besides that the boarding mingled with everything else, there were hardly any seats or areas to rest, or even stand. The worst airport I have been at, and I would always try to avoid this airport! PS: one has to give stars otherwise this site doesn't work but even 1 start partially is too much.