Zurich Airport confirmed on 27 October that it will activate the European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES) on 17 November, joining EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg, which went live earlier in the month. The EES replaces manual passport stamping with an automated biometric process that records each entry and exit of third-country nationals to the Schengen area. Travellers will scan their passports and have their fingerprints and facial images captured on first use; subsequent crossings will rely on facial verification only.
Although Switzerland is not an EU member, it applies Schengen rules, so the roll-out has been coordinated closely with the Federal Office of Police (fedpol) and the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). Zurich Airport has installed 52 self-service kiosks and six automated border-control gates in Terminal 2; additional kiosks will be added in Terminal 1 before the winter‐holiday peak. Airline and ground-handling staff have been trained to triage travellers so that the new formalities do not clog departure queues.
For business travellers, the key benefit is faster, more predictable frontier processing once the initial biometric enrolment is complete. Corporate travel managers are being advised to alert non-EU assignees and frequent flyers that first-time registration could add 10–15 minutes at departure or arrival. Companies with large numbers of rotating project staff—especially in the pharma, finance and tech sectors clustered around Zürich—are already arranging staggered travel to avoid bottlenecks in the first days of operation.
The EES also tightens compliance: overstays will be flagged automatically, and identity fraud becomes far harder. Swiss immigration lawyers warn that inadvertent overstays will be less likely to go unnoticed; HR departments should therefore audit travel calendars against Schengen “90/180-day” limits more rigorously.
Airports in Bern, Lugano and St. Gallen-Altenrhein—Switzerland’s other external-Schengen airports—will implement EES between January and April 2026, keeping Switzerland on the EU’s common timeline for full adoption.
Although Switzerland is not an EU member, it applies Schengen rules, so the roll-out has been coordinated closely with the Federal Office of Police (fedpol) and the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM). Zurich Airport has installed 52 self-service kiosks and six automated border-control gates in Terminal 2; additional kiosks will be added in Terminal 1 before the winter‐holiday peak. Airline and ground-handling staff have been trained to triage travellers so that the new formalities do not clog departure queues.
For business travellers, the key benefit is faster, more predictable frontier processing once the initial biometric enrolment is complete. Corporate travel managers are being advised to alert non-EU assignees and frequent flyers that first-time registration could add 10–15 minutes at departure or arrival. Companies with large numbers of rotating project staff—especially in the pharma, finance and tech sectors clustered around Zürich—are already arranging staggered travel to avoid bottlenecks in the first days of operation.
The EES also tightens compliance: overstays will be flagged automatically, and identity fraud becomes far harder. Swiss immigration lawyers warn that inadvertent overstays will be less likely to go unnoticed; HR departments should therefore audit travel calendars against Schengen “90/180-day” limits more rigorously.
Airports in Bern, Lugano and St. Gallen-Altenrhein—Switzerland’s other external-Schengen airports—will implement EES between January and April 2026, keeping Switzerland on the EU’s common timeline for full adoption.
