The passenger journey is key at Zurich Airport
Zurich Airport is Switzerland’s gateway to the world. Over 31 million people arrived at, transferred via or departed from the airport in 2018, making it not only the region’s most important transport hub, but also the leading meeting place and destination. With around 280 companies employing almost 27,000 people, Zurich Airport is a key economic driver for the region. At Zurich Airport, we focus on our passengers and how we can make their journey through our infrastructure as pleasant as possible.
By always striving for excellent quality in services and processes we maximize the time and minimize the hassle for passengers travelling through our airport.
Zurich Airport regularly wins awards for excellent services, short transfer distances, friendly staff, the cleanliness of its infrastructure, the reliability of its processes and other quality indicators. Most recently, we have been awarded the Skytrax Award for the “World’s Best Airport Security Processing”. Each year, passengers around the world are surveyed about their experiences at airports. The Skytrax Awards are presented on the basis of these surveys. With around 13 million participants, it is the world’s largest customer satisfaction survey in the aviation sector. We are proud to receive this recognition again, after a previous win in 2016.
How do we distinguish ourselves? We already have an ideal set-up with a centralized multi-level security building for departing passengers right after boarding pass control. Our airport also features decentralized security checkpoints for transfer passengers, making the security screening process swift and efficient for all travellers. In recent years we further improved this key passenger process. A great effort went into optimizing the preparation area at all security checkpoints. Self-explanatory multimedia visualizations on site illustrate allowed, restricted and prohibited items. Special containers for prohibited items enable passengers to get rid of anything prohibited in their hand luggage without having to take a detour. Lastly, staff are continuously trained on how to handle specific security regulations regarding for example liquids, spare batteries or power banks. All these measures contribute to a smooth security process at Zurich Airport.
Sure, receiving awards is nice and makes us proud. What’s even nicer though is knowing that by always striving for excellent quality in services and processes we maximize the time and minimize the hassle for passengers travelling through our airport. And that is, after all, the very essence of any journey, is it not? Travelling should be pleasant, with both time and money well spent.
By Peter Frei, Head Safety & Security Flughafen Zürich AG
