Switzerland
Airport Guides

Operating into Switzerland

What is different about flying a private jet into Switzerland

Switzerland does not run on landing permits. It runs on slots, prior permission and parking, and in January on all three at once. Zurich and Geneva are coordinated airports where a private movement needs a slot like any scheduled service, with Geneva taking PPR five days out; Lugano, Samedan and Buochs run on prior permission without an airline-style slot. Entry is Schengen, with EES recording non-EU passengers and ETIAS arriving for visa-exempt nationalities. Data Link is mandatory above FL285 and Switzerland is on the logon list, so the flight plan needs the 24-bit address. Handling is mandatory at Zurich, Geneva and Lugano, optional at Samedan and Buochs. Geneva peaks December to March, and Davos tightens the Zurich area every January.

The two majors are less interchangeable than they look. Zurich serves German-speaking Switzerland and the east, with three runways, the longest at 12,139 feet, Category 10 fire cover and a rail station inside the airport. Its charter departures must be slotted by 2145 with zero tolerance. Geneva serves the west, the Lake Geneva region and, decisively, the Alps, on a single 12,795 foot runway four kilometres from the city. A layover of more than three hours needs prior approval, and parking is capped at two hours during the Motor Show in March and EBACE in May. Basel Mulhouse covers the north, where the arrival country is a choice.

The regional fields are chosen on ground time, and each has a hard edge. Buochs, on Lake Lucerne, has a 6,561 foot runway and no terminal, so vehicles come to the ramp, and is often quicker than Zurich for central Switzerland; customs needs 24 hours notice, 48 at weekends, and there is no de-icing. Samedan is the field for St Moritz, at 5,600 feet of elevation with a 5,905 foot runway, a mandatory crew briefing and an FBO that clears customs and de-ices. Lugano is the closest Swiss field to Lake Como, with a 4,658 foot runway whose declared landing distances are shorter still and differ by direction, and a steep valley approach needing crew qualification. Dubendorf is a Swiss Air Force base with no civil fuel; its only civil role is WEF parking by arrangement.

The constraint that catches crews out is the evening departure. Crews plan against the published curfew and miss the earlier one that applies to them: at Zurich the latest allocated departure slot for a charter is 2145, roughly an hour before the general departure curfew, and Geneva's departure curfew for slot allocation starts at 2126. A schedule that slips into the evening has nowhere to go. The desk files the slot as early as the schedule is known, confirms the departure sits outside the curfew with margin, and in winter establishes whether Geneva ramp parking is realistic or whether the trip needs a drop and go with the positioning legs priced from the start.

Send the dates, the aircraft and the stops one to two weeks out for the coordinated airports and months ahead for Davos, where parking is secured six to twelve months in advance. Include the aircraft documents with insurance and noise certificate, crew and passenger names and nationalities, and the equipment codes for the flight plan. For Buochs, say whether the arrival is international; for Samedan, send the passenger count, baggage and onward routing so the departure performance is run before quoting.

Facts checked against the skybriefing (Swiss AIP) publications, the airport guides above and Icarus Jet operations data.