Zurich Airport Reviews 

Last week we travelled from Zurich to Bangkok and experienced the hottest wait ever in Dock E; the temperature was estimated at 30 degrees Celsius. The Swiss should take a leaf out of Bangkok's book.

Not organized, no information, crazy waiting times!!!

Terrible Temperature/Humidity Situation at the airport through misconstruction. There are no airconditions, bad air flowing systems, just weak cooling in parts of the airports. Duty Free Shops way too much lights heating up the locality. Swiss Business Lounge in the Airside Shopping is way too small for the amount of people. Worst of all, Airport sees no need to change temperature/humidity situation as Climate targets are more important for them. In terms of temperature/humidity situation it is one of the worst performing international hubs in the world. Not respecting customer needs is inacceptable behaviour and we avoid ZRH Airport whenever possible. If quality and respect are missing, so why support financially?

🚨 One of the worst travel experiences I've ever had happened in Switzerland. 🇨🇭
I always believed Switzerland stood for efficiency, reliability, and world-class customer service. Sadly, my experience proved the exact opposite.
✈️ Our flight from Geneva was delayed because of bad weather. That's completely understandable—safety always comes first.
🌤️ Around 11:30 PM, the weather had cleared, we were invited to board, and everyone believed we were finally leaving.
❗We were already sitting on the aircraft when we were told that Zürich Airport refused to allow our plane (and several others) to depart because airport operations ended at midnight.
Yes , YOU READ RIGHT... we had to leave the aircraft and walk back into the terminal because apparently the clock mattered more than the passengers.
💥 And that's when the real nightmare started.
👥 Hundreds of passengers were left stranded with almost no information.
📢 SWISS told everyone to go to the Transfer Desk...
🚫 ...except ALL TRANSFER DESKS WERE ALREADY CLOSED.
🏨 We were then told to find and book our own hotel, because "all our hotels are booked."
🤷 No help finding another hotel.
🚕 No transportation.
🍽️ No food vouchers.
💬 No meaningful communication.
💸 They promised reimbursement of up to 150 CHF, even though anyone familiar with Zürich knows that finding a hotel near the airport at midnight for that price is nearly impossible.
⏳ Instead of trying to get passengers to their destinations on the earliest available flights—even with other airlines—we were simply rebooked almost 24 HOURS LATER.
❤️ The most heartbreaking part wasn't the delay.
It was watching the people around us.
👴 Elderly passengers confused and struggling because everything depended on digital apps.
👨‍👩‍👧 Families with exhausted, crying children.
😢 People missing important meetings, holidays, and family events.
All because, after the weather had improved, nobody was willing to keep airport operations running just a little longer to help hundreds of people get home.
⚠️ Weather is nobody's fault.
❌ The way passengers are treated afterward absolutely is.
This experience left me deeply disappointed—not because of the delay itself, but because of the complete lack of empathy, communication, and responsibility shown by both Zürich Airport and SWISS. Being in similar situations previously – in Germany, Belgium, Finland, Estonia – I never experienced anything even close to it!
I genuinely hope they rethink how they handle situations like this in the future.
✈️ Passengers don't expect miracles.
They expect honesty.
They expect help.
They expect humanity.
Unfortunately, on this occasion, they received none of those.
#SWISS #ZurichAirport #TravelFail #CustomerService #PassengerRights #TravelExperience #Aviation #Switzerland

On June 15th 2026 I was at the airport and bought some souvenirs. In the Spirit of Switzerland shop I bought a set of 2 tea towels which I paid by card without realising that the woman at the till which looked Indian, charged me twice the price! I discovered that once I was in the UK and checked my bank account. I think that was disgraceful because this woman knows that most people at the airport are in a hurry and won’t be checking the receipts.
I spoke to my bank and will try to help me but I hope that whoever is in charge of this shop do something to stop this kind of robbery.

Very hot and expensive airport. They designed a green house not an airport terminal. You could grow tomatoes in there.

Really poor organisation relating to the passport control, no air-con to make the hot and sweaty queue more bearable...

If I could give Zurich airport a zero, I would. We started our departure process 3 hours before our flight We experienced massive, confusing lines for baggage check in, whichever led to excessive and multiple passport control lines. At one point, we were corralled into a holding area with hundreds of people and pushed through a very narrow entrance to the Gate E entrance. Multiple fights broke out among passengers - I have never in my life seen anything so chaotic and shameful.. Non of the agents answered questions, helped passengers or exhibited the slightest bit of courtesy. We were never told if our flight would be held and the app never alerted us to security and passport control issues. We barely made it to our gate - after we boarded the plane, the pilot conveniently shared that we would need to sit on the tarmac for 1 hour because we missed our 30 minute taxi window! Thankfully we do not have a connection in DC but if you had one - forget it. My advice - avoid Zurich period - especially for transfers. The supposed “efficiency and precision” of the Swiss does not exist at Zurich airport. Zero stars

1 hour to get through immigration !
Only 5 lanes open for hundreds of people
Disgraceful

On May 31st May 2026, my family and I missed our flight due to delays in the immigration scan section to exit, not many were open. At first, 2 counters were open, then only 1 counter was open. We asked the airport staff to let us in because our ticket was about to arrive. She replied that there was enough time for us to queue. We waited for almost an hour, and at the last minute, we missed our flight. This is our first experience with a very slow immigration process in the world. I had to buy a new ticket worth CHF2400. I've already spent almost CHF15,000 on a 2-week vacation in your country. But to go back I have to face the hassle of your country's immigration. I hope the authorities there can solve the system better. If your gais not change i think you are scam and worst airport in the world!

I will avoid transferring at this airport. I travel a lot and haven't seen worse treatment of passengers in Europe.

They crammed us into an overpacked bus, squeezed like sardines, with the heating on during a very hot day - turning it into an oven. Did they learn anything from Covid? The driver then cut corners at high speed while ferrying us to another terminal like cargo. With nothing to hold onto in the overcrowded bus, I kept falling against the door.

Transferring requires another useless security checkpoint. An employee started scolding me about separating each electronic into its own tray (something many airports no longer require). When I pushed back on such tone that no one had told me anything and there are no printed instructions here, I was conveniently selected for an "extra random" check. I had to ask the visibly agitated officer on his powertrip (geared up like he was going to a war), to handle my items carefully. If retaliation is their reaction to uncomfortable situations, this is obviously a systematical issue.

All the EU passport eGates were closed, forcing me to queue for something a machine does in 10 seconds. They seem to be efficient in introducing friction.

Gate announcements were often unclear about which group was boarding which flight. Signage was confusing. My priority group received no priority boarding. I also watched the gate staff lift each passenger's carry-on to check whether it should be gate-checked. At that point I was half-expecting them to stick a label on my forehead.

All this after a 16-hour longhaul flight. I've logged a complaint about the bus with Swiss Airlines and will review them separately, but this airport was the cherry on top.

Shops are overpriced for mediocre food, and the staff makes it painfully clear they'd rather be anywhere else.

Also I don't really care which company or department runs which part of the airport - not my problem. I'm a customer who paid $3k for an international flight connecting here, and I rate this place as a package. That package is rotten to the core. The contrast is especially striking after flying through airports like Tokyo, where staff are efficient, polite, and highly professional. Here I got overconfident cowboys who can't or refuse to string together a polite English sentence. I've never seen so much toxicity in a single place.

I have seat 3 in the airplane for which I paid, but group 5 for boarding! That makes no sense at all!!!

The new luggage scanners are great. No more unpacking laptops and stuff. But then I know that sitting is the new smoking but sometimes you really wanna sit somewhere without buying a vastly overpriced drink or sandwich. Especially on the way to the gates if you need to wait for gate nr information.

Ham & cheese croissant inedible - I almost was sick - some weird mixture , not ham or cheese

I transited today between 2 European flights. Space to seat, lots of shops, clean bathrooms…
But…
Extremely expensive place (6 Suiss Francs a double expresso, 16 francs a chocolate tablet.. Are you serious ?
And we spent 2 times 10 mn standing when boarding: one in front of the (closed) boarding gate (showing « boarding ») and one between the bus and the plane on the tarmac.
The cabin crew explained it was « the airport’s responsibility »…

Transfering in Zurich is a breath of fresh air, especially compared to the big European airports, a little to many bus gates but nicely layed out and efficient airport.

Horrible bottle necks at border control, train is operating at 50% due to ‘modernization of the airport’ which left people panicked to make their connections packing bodies into the remaining operating train between terminals.

This airport is empty and when suddenly overwhelmed with passengers making me wonder why such intense bottle necks were designed into this facility.

Out of date basic scanners, way behind other EU countries, and US.
Immigration/Emmigration queues around 45 mins, never over half counters open.
Lounges are honestly the worst I have experienced outside third world.
Try and transfer/travel elsewhere

Unfortunately I cannot give zero stars, because even one star is already too much.

I was returning from a ski holiday in Switzerland and checked in at the Business Class counter at Zurich Airport as an Iberia Plus Platino Prime frequent flyer. My baggage allowance is 32 kg. Before check-in, we had the suitcase wrapped in plastic, as Iberia has already damaged several of my suitcases on previous flights and I wanted to protect this one.

When I placed the suitcase on the scale it showed 32.2 kg. I thought that was close enough – but I had not yet encountered Elena at the check-in desk, who was probably the most unpleasant check-in agent I have met in more than 40 years of frequent flying.

She refused to accept the suitcase.

At first I thought it was a joke. I explained that I am an Iberia status customer with a 32 kg allowance. Her answer: the suitcase was 200 grams too heavy and would not be accepted.

Yes – the entire discussion was about 200 grams.

I absolutely understand that airport staff must be protected from lifting excessive weight, but we were talking about 200 grams, which is easily within the margin of error of any scale.

Nevertheless I was told I had to cut open the entire plastic wrapping again and remove weight. I asked to speak with a supervisor, who at first would not even turn around to speak to me. Only after I repeatedly asked did she briefly state that the suitcase would not be accepted like that.

Service: zero points.
Communication: rude.
Friendliness: zero points.
Problem solving: non-existent.

Business Class apparently means nothing.
Platino Prime status apparently means nothing.

Employees like this are a disgrace to Iberia’s brand and customer service.

For the record: after removing the plastic wrapping and taking out a single bath slipper, the suitcase was suddenly acceptable and allowed to travel.

Never again Iberia from Zurich Airport.

8pm on a weekday evening. All Passports queue is over 250 people. There are two immigration desks open. What a joke. Welcome to Switzerland- not!