Zurich Airport’s driverless Skymetro, the underground shuttle linking the main Airside Centre with long-haul Terminal E, suffered a power interruption at 15:15 on Monday, 20 July. The train stalled halfway through the 1.1-km tunnel with around 50 passengers on board. Airport firefighters escorted travellers along a dedicated service walkway to the nearest station; the operation was completed in 30 minutes and the system was back in service an hour later. The incident did not delay flights, but it highlighted the sensitivity of hub operations to ‘last-metre’ infrastructure. Because the Skymetro is the only landside-airside link for non-Schengen flights, any extended outage could create significant knock-on effects for transfer passengers and tight crew rotations. Zurich handled an average of 463 daily flights in June, with one-third connecting, so contingency arrangements are critical. Zurich Airport AG said battery-back-up and evacuation drills introduced after a 2024 breakdown proved effective; nevertheless, it has ordered an external audit of the power supply and control software. Airlines operating evening long-haul departures were advised to keep gates open 10 minutes longer as a precaution on Monday. For corporate travel managers, the event is a reminder to build padding into itineraries involving onward long-haul connections from Zurich and to register travellers for the airport’s disruption-alert app. Mobility providers noted that a planned expansion of the passport-control hall and additional e-gates, due in 2027, will include a second passenger transport system to provide redundancy. Although minor, the fault comes amid broader European scrutiny of automated people-movers after similar stoppages at Frankfurt and Madrid, suggesting regulators may soon tighten maintenance reporting requirements for air-rail systems.
Source: SWI swissinfo.ch
