Hiking the Zürich Flughafen-Rundweg (Airport Loop) Trail

The Zürich-Flughafen Rundweg trail is a 17 km long trail with 110 m ascent/descent that makes a complete loop around the Zürich Airport. While this trail does spend some time alongside busy streets, it also passes through a nature reserve. This flat, easy trail (completely wheelchair accessible) makes for a pleasant day out and is (unsurprisingly) particularly fun for anyone who likes watching planes.

Detail Summary

Additional Info

Getting There

This trail starts and ends at the Zürich Airport in Kloten. After taking the train to the airport, we followed the signs for the Bus/Tram station.

Once outside, we followed the road to the paved path. We used the map to make sure we were on the right trail as we didn’t immediately see a trail sign. After taking the paved path in picture two, we did see one of the white diamond trail markers, so we knew we were headed in the right direction.

The Trail

The trail starts by following the road around the airport. The airport is fenced off, and not always visible but the low flying planes let you know you are close. This part of the path is also part of Stage 3 of a National Bike Route 5 – The Mittelland Route which my son and I biked in the summer of 2022.

When the trail begins to follow along the Glatt river, there is more nature to enjoy, though the airport is still visible through the fence.

After turning away from the Glatt river, we were almost at the half-way point of the hike. After passing through some residential areas, we got some lovely views over open fields of the airport with the mountains in the background. The Oberglatt, Pistenende bus stop is here and it is a great place to watch the planes come in to land. It was Easter Sunday and the small parking lot there was quite crowded. We stopped to watch the planes flying in overhead and to get some gelato at the gelato stand.

At this point, my son decided he was done hiking for the day and hopped the bus home, but my husband and I continued on with the second half of the trail. Much like the first half, there was nature to one side of the trail and fenced off airport to the other side. In my opinion, though, there were better views of the planes coming in to land from this side.

Towards the end of the hike, we passed the Rega (Swiss Air Rescue) headquarters. If you aren’t already, it is worth being a Rega Patron just to help keep the rescue service available. You never know when you might need them (and if you are a patron, any cost of your rescue not covered by your insurance may be waived.)

As we came into Kloten, there was some construction, so we had to detour through some streets to get back to the airport.

Once inside the airport, we found the train station and headed home. This was a nice, easy hike and with the views of the low flying and landing planes, something different to enjoy.