This page covers two different things travellers look for under the same word: accessibility at Zurich Airport if you travel with reduced mobility, and the accessibility of this website.
Assistance at Zurich Airport
Passengers with reduced mobility have a right to assistance at every EU and Swiss airport, free of charge. At Zurich this covers the whole chain: from arrival at the terminal or the station, through check-in, security and passport control, to the aircraft door or the seat — and the same in reverse on arrival.
Through your airline
Assistance is requested from the airline, not the airport, and ideally at booking. The airline passes the request to the airport’s service.
At least 48 hours ahead
Requested later, assistance is still provided wherever possible, but the guarantee of a slot applies to requests made in good time.
Meeting points
Call points are marked in the terminals, in the car parks and at the railway station. Announce yourself there; the assistance team collects you.
Your own wheelchair
You can normally use your own chair to the aircraft door, where it is loaded into the hold and returned on arrival.
Because the details — call point locations, contact numbers, current procedure — are set by the airport and change, the authoritative source is flughafen-zuerich.ch. We link rather than paraphrase, because a wrong phone number on this page could strand someone.
Getting to the airport with reduced mobility
| Option | What to know |
|---|---|
| Train | The station is directly beneath the airport, lift-accessible. SBB provides boarding assistance on request, booked in advance through its own service. |
| Private transfer | Door to door, driver waiting inside the hall, no walking to a rank and no luggage handling. Tell us about a wheelchair when booking so the right vehicle is assigned — the V-Class has the widest access. |
| Taxi | The rank is outside the arrival halls. Accessible vehicles exist but are not guaranteed on the rank; order one in advance. |
| Parking | Marked accessible bays are located closest to the terminal lifts. |
Accessibility of this website
We build zrhairport.ch to be usable without a mouse, without images and at any text size. Concretely, that means:
- semantic headings, so a screen reader can navigate a page by structure
- a visible focus outline on every interactive element
- text that reflows to a single column on a narrow screen, with no horizontal scrolling of the page itself — wide tables scroll inside their own container
- colour contrast checked against the dark and light surfaces used in the design
- animation suppressed when the operating system requests reduced motion
- no content that depends on colour alone to be understood
Two limits we are honest about. The live flight boards are supplied by a third party inside an embedded frame — their markup is not ours to fix, and the accompanying text on arrivals and departures is written so the page still makes sense if the board does not load. The booking system is a separate application; it is keyboard-navigable, and the address field relies on an autocomplete that requires JavaScript.
Tell us what is broken
If something on this site blocks you — an unreadable contrast, a control you cannot reach with a keyboard, a table that will not reflow — write to [email protected] with the page and what happened. Accessibility defects are treated as bugs, not as feature requests.
Accessibility — FAQ
How do I request wheelchair assistance at Zurich Airport?
Through the airline you are flying with, not the airport directly, and at least 48 hours before departure. The airline forwards the request to the airport assistance service.
Is assistance at Zurich Airport free?
Yes. Assistance for passengers with reduced mobility is provided free of charge, as required for airports in Switzerland and the European Union.
Can I keep my own wheelchair until the aircraft?
In normal circumstances yes: you use your own chair to the aircraft door, it travels in the hold, and it is returned to you at the door on arrival. Confirm with your airline, as the handling of powered chairs and batteries has specific rules.
Is the railway station under Zurich Airport step-free?
Yes. The station sits directly beneath the airport and is connected by lifts. SBB also offers boarding assistance, which is booked separately through its own service.
Which transfer vehicle is easiest to board?
The V-Class has the widest door and the highest roof of the fleet, which makes boarding easier with limited mobility or with a folded chair. Mention your requirements when booking so the right vehicle is assigned.