In July I got a very surprising invitation of Zurich Airport to enter a new kind of passenger tour. The tour which is available for flying passengers only shows the hidden parts of the airport. We were only five people at this day, including one Social Media Manager and a Tour Guide of the Zurich Airport AG.

We started our tour in the Info desk in the Airside Center, where you can also get more information about the tour. Normally the tour continues to the observation deck rst. But we started directly with the second task: We walked straight to the A gates where we left the building and after a short walk over the tarmac we entered the luggage sorting and transportation system which has over 70 kilometers of rails. The baggage can be sorted and delivered nearly automatic. Only at some points employees are needed to check or sort the baggage. After a very interesting look into this system, our tour guide Johnny walked around the A gates with us. It was very special to walk around the terminal and Johnny made it even better. He allowed us a few thing, so that we could take the perfect shot! We could see aircraft operations and handling from very close. Also a push back and a refueling of an aircraft. The absolute highlight for everyone was the nice pilot of Swiss International Air Lines which let us take detail shots of the aircraft's engine. We could also take some pictures of us sitting in the engine. After this we headed back to the Airside Center. On our way we did a lot of stop overs to make more photos. We saw a lot of details and things a usual passenger never get's to see. As we were back in the buildings Johnny explained us a lot of cool things from the history. For me it was special to see the old Jumbo gates.

After around two and a half hours on the apron we were back in the passenger buildings were we had some kind discussions together, shared experiences and gave feedback to the tour: In my opinion, the guided tour is a great opportunity for transit passengers which have a long transit time at Zurich. If you have some friends with you, don't miss the chance to make one of those new tours! By the way, they are world wide unique!

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This article was produced in cooperation with Zurich Airport AG.