So, I often find myself making short trips to the airport to pick up or drop off people, and wondered where the best place to park is.

They have parking areas 1 - 6, and a drop off point for departures. Obviously the drop off point is free, but when i want to meet people at arrivals i normally park in P1, and for about 1 hour it costs about chf5

Is that the best option?

krlock3.

If you are meeting a late flight you can try the parking metres right outside. These used to be until 21:00, but I have a nasty feeling they have extended the hours that you need to use them...

http://www.flughafen-zuerich.ch/doku...D_20070531.pdf

The cheapest on is next to AlpenRock used to be E before they changed the scheme to numbers.

What you gain on the swing, you lose no the roundabout. P1 is the most convenient.

Waiting limited to 15mins (in theory) outside the terminal. Sit in your car and wait , keep an eye out for inspectors and periodically check the arrivals boards and baggage delivery timings. It takes most people 25mins from landing time to exit. It's a lot simpler than the hassles of the car parks.

dave

yes, but i find the personal touch of going and meeting someone as they come out of arrivals, a bit classier than telling them to trawl a departures area looking for me.

therefore looks like i will stay with P1.

Oh, i remember now that apparently if you do some shopping there while you wait, you can get some kind of voucher entitling you to a discount on the parking. im not sure exactly how it works, but my gf did it once or twice for sure.

krlock3.

i was going to mention this. if you go to migros (not sure if it works for the other shops in airport) and you spend CHF60, you can ask for a parking voucher, so it will be free, (better than discount ) and yes agree, parking is very expensive at flughafen...

The new arrivals display boards have a little animated suitcase showing how long before first luggage available on carousel. Assume your visitors luggage is say five minutes after first delivery, and you can pretty much predict when they will emerge from the sliding door. What I am saying is that can make sure your fifteen minutes when you leave your car outside and feed the meter is timed just right...

dave

The old loophole of parking for free post-2100 is gone. Metered 24x7 now.

I used to park at departures and walk down.

Now I just loiter at departures, especially on evening flights - it's empty up there but packed downstairs.

I too tend to use 'Departures' as it is not so heavily patrolled and does not get overcrowded. Arrivals can sometime have 0 parking spaces available.

Use the 'arrivals' info on the Swiss Website and you can find the actual time a flight is arriving, then be at the airport 20mins after that to allow them to collect luggage etc.. Then you can minimise your waiting time. I think you can even be texted when the flight arrives/lands.