The Swiss voice in the world since 1935

Zurich aircraft noise exceeds limits

Too many people annoyed by Zurich aircraft noise
Too many people annoyed by Zurich aircraft noise Keystone-SDA

Some 53,173 people were affected by aircraft noise in Zurich in 2023 – 6,173 more than the limit of 47,000 people. Among other things, this is due to significantly more frequent night flights caused by delays during the day.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

The number of flights after 11 pm exceeded the pre-pandemic level, according to the airport report published on Thursday. The canton’s expectations regarding noise limitation have therefore not been met. However, the airport partners have introduced measures to improve punctuality.

Further adjustments are needed for a long-term improvement, it said. For example, a tightening of the day and night surcharges. This could create an incentive to plan flights in such a way that delays and associated noise pollution after 11 pm are reduced.

In Zurich, a night flight ban applies from 11:30 pm to 6 am. However, the period from 11 pm to 11.30 am is reserved exclusively for delayed take-offs and landings.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.

If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.

Popular Stories

News

Swiss economy barely grows in the second quarter

More

Swiss economy stagnates in second quarter

This content was published on After a strong start to the year, the Swiss economy has slowed considerably. In the second quarter, gross domestic product (GDP) rose by just 0.1 per cent on an adjusted basis compared to the previous quarter.

Read more: Swiss economy stagnates in second quarter
One-and-a-half-year conditional prison sentence for priest in Ticino

More

Swiss priest found guilty of child sex abuse

This content was published on The Ticino cantonal criminal court in Lugano has found a priest guilty of multiple sexual assault and sexual offences with minors. The man was sentenced to a conditional 18-month prison term.

Read more: Swiss priest found guilty of child sex abuse
A code of conduct for collecting signatures

More

Swiss democracy

Switzerland to introduce code of conduct for collecting referendum signatures

This content was published on Commercial collectors of signatures for initiatives and referendums could be given a legally non-binding code of conduct. This proposal comes from the Federal Chancellery following the discovery of thousands of falsified signatures.

Read more: Switzerland to introduce code of conduct for collecting referendum signatures

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!

If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR