Zurich Airport lifts 100-ml liquid limit after CT-scanner upgrade

Business travellers departing Zurich can now breeze through security with the shampoo still inside their cabin bag. In the early hours of 23 June 2026 the airport operator Flughafen Zürich AG activated a new security concept in its dedicated Screening Building “SKG”. All lanes are now equipped with next-generation computed-tomography (CT) scanners that produce high-resolution 3-D images. In parallel, the Federal Office for Civil Aviation (FOCA) approved a local derogation from the long-standing EU‐wide 100-millilitre rule. What changes in practice is considerable. Passengers may keep laptops, tablets and power banks inside their bags and may carry liquid containers of up to two litres without placing them in a separate one-litre plastic pouch.



For those same travellers who also need to stay on top of visa and entry rules, VisaHQ can streamline the process: the platform (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) provides up-to-date visa information and fast application services for Switzerland and onward destinations, helping corporate flyers ensure that their documents are in order before they even reach the newly upgraded checkpoint.

A family of four therefore needs only two trays instead of six, and peak-hour waiting times are expected to fall by 25 – 30 %. For premium and connecting passengers the smoother flow translates directly into less buffer time between meetings and flights. The upgrade cost “a low double-digit million-franc amount”, according to airport CEO Lukas Brosi, but the business case looks solid. Zurich handled 33 million passengers in 2025; every extra minute they spend air-side is worth roughly CHF 3 in retail revenue. Airlines such as Swiss and Edelweiss also welcome the move because it reduces missed-connection risk on tight 40-minute turn-arounds. Travellers should still check onward-journey rules. The relaxed limit applies only when starting a trip in Zurich; passengers transiting to non-CT airports (for example New York JFK Terminal 4 or Singapore T1) could see their two-litre bottle confiscated at re-screening. For now the exemption is limited to the SKG building, but Flughafen Zürich plans to retrofit the airport’s older checkpoints by the end of 2027, aligning with the broader European trend toward CT-based screening. For global mobility managers the message is twofold: Zurich just became an even more attractive hub for time-sensitive corporate itineraries, but policy handbooks should add a note reminding assignees that liquid allowances differ across the network. Expect similar changes at Basel-Mulhouse in 2027 once the Franco-Swiss terminal receives the same equipment.