Zurich Airport noise: flight paths, runways and night flights

Three runways, run by the clock

Zurich has three runways: 10/28, 14/32 and 16/34. At most airports the wind decides which way planes land. At Zurich the time of day comes first, because Germany bars approaches through southern German airspace from 21:00 to 07:00 on weekdays and from 20:00 to 09:00 at weekends and on Baden-Württemberg public holidays. So the airport runs three set patterns, which it calls operating concepts, and safety and the weather decide within them:

• Early morning (06:00 to 07:00 on weekdays, 06:00 to 09:00 at weekends and on those holidays): planes land from the south on runway 34 and take off to the north on runways 32 or 34, some to the west on runway 28.
• Day (07:00 to 21:00 on weekdays, 09:00 to 20:00 at weekends and holidays): planes land from the north on runway 14, occasionally 16, and take off to the west on runway 28 and to the south on runway 16.
• Evening (21:00 or 20:00 until 23:30): planes land from the east on runway 28 and take off to the north on runways 32 or 34. The same pattern is used by day when strong westerly winds blow.

When the Bise, the north-easterly wind, blows, take-offs go east from runway 10 instead, with landings on runway 14 by day and 34 in the evening.

In 2025, 70% of landings came in on runway 14, 20% on runway 28 and 10% on runway 34. Most take-offs, around three in five, left from runway 28 towards the west, and about a quarter from runway 32 towards the north-west. Our own count over the last year gives the same picture: runways 28 and 14 carried about three-quarters of all flights. Because the clock sets the pattern, most homes near Zurich know when their planes will come: by day for villages north-west of the airport, in the evening for those to the east, unless strong wind changes the plan.

Where landing planes fly

Landing planes line up with the runway well before the first villages and descend on a straight line, so each place hears them at the same height every time.

Landing from the north-west (runway 14, by day), the approach begins over Germany. Planes cross Lienheim, on the German bank of the Rhine, at about 2,650 ft, 15 km out, then Weiach at 1,800 ft, Windlach in Stadel at 1,450 ft, Neerach at 1,100 ft and Höri at 450 to 750 ft. This one line carries most of Zurich's landings.

Landing from the east (runway 28, in the evening), planes pass Neschwil at about 2,900 ft, Kyburg at 2,350 ft, Kemptthal at 1,950 ft and Lindau at 1,550 ft, then Oberwil, Baltenswil in Bassersdorf at 800 ft and Rank, on the edge of Kloten, at 450 ft.

Landing from the south (runway 34, early mornings) took about one landing in ten in 2025. Our sample days had too few of these to draw a reliable line, so they are not in the table.

Both lines follow the usual descent: on runway 14, planes are about 1,450 ft up 8 km out and 2,650 ft at 15 km. Our guide to how high planes fly when landing explains the numbers.

Where take-offs go

Take-offs climb much faster than landings descend and turn onto set routes, so they spread wider but higher.

By day, take-offs from runway 28 head west: in our recordings, about seven in ten of them pass over Dällikon, some 4,350 ft up 8 km out. In the evening, take-offs from runway 32 head north-west, and nearly nine in ten pass Windlach in Stadel at about 4,200 ft. So Windlach hears low landings by day and take-offs in the evening. Take-offs to the south from runway 16, and from runways 34 and 10, were too few on our sample days to show a route.

Night flights and quiet hours

Zurich is open from 06:00 to 23:30. Flights are scheduled until 23:00, with take-offs planned until 22:45 and landings until 22:55, and the half hour from 23:00 to 23:30 is kept for catching up on delays without special permission. After 23:30 the airport can allow a flight only for unforeseeable events such as severe weather: it granted 201 such exceptions in 2025, down from 411 in 2024. Emergency, ambulance, police and disaster-relief flights are exempt. Our guide to night flight rules compares Zurich with other airports.

Late flights are getting more expensive. In September 2025 the Federal Council approved changes to the federal plan for the airport (the SIL object sheet), under which the noise surcharge for delayed long-haul take-offs after 23:00 rises in two steps, first by a third and in the end to three times its level.

In 2025, Zurich had 14,540 flights between 22:00 and 06:00, 11,722 of them between 22:00 and 23:00: about 40 a night, 32 of them in the first hour.

Our recordings match. A typical night has no landings or take-offs from about 23:25 to 05:55. About 10 flights come after 23:00, nearly all of them before 23:30, and the morning starts with about 27 between 06:00 and 07:00. Counting 23:00 to 07:00, 34 planes landed or took off on an average night over the last year, and 77 on the busiest. Winter nights are quieter: about 25 a night from November to March, against about 45 in July and August.

Busy days and quiet days

Zurich handled 270,116 flights in 2025, 3.5% more than in 2024 and 1.9% fewer than in 2019, or about 740 a day. Our count from recorded flights, about 745 a day over the last twelve months, is in line with it. Traffic runs from about 630 a day in January to 830 to 840 in summer and September, and Saturday is the quietest day of the week. The busiest day in our year was 28 September 2026, with 894.

At Zurich, the time of day decides which villages hear planes; a busy day makes each pattern busier but rarely changes it.

Changes ahead: longer runways and dearer late flights

On 3 March 2024, voters in the canton of Zurich approved extending runway 28 by 400 m to the west and runway 32 by 280 m to the north. The planning applications were on public display from 1 to 30 June 2026. Building could start in 2030 at the earliest, with about two years' work for runway 32 and seven to eight for runway 28, including preparatory work. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) says the extensions will not change the number of flights. The airport says the longer runway 28 will let it use the evening pattern in more kinds of weather, and the longer runway 32 will let heavy long-haul aircraft take off from it late in the evening instead of from runway 34.

FOCA has also ordered a new set of noise classes and higher surcharges in Zurich's noise charges, to apply by 2027 at the latest.

Complaints, insulation and help

To complain, call the airport's aircraft noise hotline on +41 43 816 21 31 or use the noise contact form on its website. It received 2,586 complaints and enquiries in 2025, 7% fewer than the year before.

To check a flight, the airport publishes a monthly noise bulletin, in German, from its 14 fixed noise monitors. It checks flights against the set routes, investigates deviations and may report those without a valid reason to FOCA. Our free Zurich flight map replays recorded days.

For insulation, where aircraft noise exceeds the limit values in Switzerland's Noise Abatement Ordinance, owners are ordered to fit sound insulation in noise-sensitive rooms, and the airport pays. That means soundproof windows and, in bedrooms, ventilators or timed window closers. Since 1999, about 6,240 buildings have been done at a cost of about CHF 340 million, 233 of them in 2025. The perimeter covers parts of more than 20 municipalities, among them Höri, Neerach, Stadel, Weiach, Kloten, Bassersdorf, Nürensdorf, Lindau, Opfikon, Rümlang and the city of Zurich, and schallschutzprogramm.ch shows whether a property is inside it.

For compensation, owners can claim for the loss in value from excessive noise only if they bought the property before 1 January 1961, or it was in the family by then: the courts treat the airport's noise as foreseeable from that date. By the end of 2025, the airport had settled 15,073 of about 20,100 claims and paid CHF 90.7 million. It says claims in areas that have long had the noise, such as Rümlang and under the approach from the north, are generally time-barred.