Likelihood of making a 45 minute connection in Zurich
 

Any experiences? I’ve never connected through that airport. Thanks.

Zurich Airport to me was less congested and smaller than many airports but whether planes are on time is the real factor. 45 minutes should be fine if you have 45 minutes. Do you have tickets that will be honored if you miss one flight -will you be put on the next flight or are you booking individual tickets. 45 minutes is always dicey IMO because of planes being late, baggage being clow and long lines perhaps at Customs/Immigrations.

Where are you flying from? Intra-European flights much more likely to be on time and often no need to go thru Immigration in Schengen countries like Switzerland is.

Pal, the itinerary is Budapest to Zurich to Newark. So there would be no need to recheck luggage, correct?

Depends on what airlines are involved but if same airline or cooperating one should be no reason if all in Schengen Accords. My understanding anyway.

""the itinerary is Budapest to Zurich to Newark.""

Doesn't matter what the itinerary is. What matters is what airlines are involved. But Zurich is phenomenally efficient so you'll likely be ok.

Check with your airline about those questions regards luggage.

I've made such a connection, but you will feel rushed, even if your flight is on time and even though Zurich is a relatively small, very efficient airport (especially if you have to change terminals). If you are flying Swiss, however, the airline and airport really work closely in tandem to make sure passengers make connections (even holding flights when necessary), and these kinds of short connections are common. With other airlines, less so. As others have pointed out. If you are flying on a single ticket with partner airlines, then you'll be able to check your bags through. To be honest, you can't do the connection otherwise, so I don't think you'd be able to book the ticket.

Just be aware that you'll have to go through a secondary security screening on your way back to the US, so don't waste one moment during the connection (not even a restroom break).

If this was an intra-Schengen connection, 45 min would be ok, but this is dealing with a US bound flight with secondary screening and sometime even more depending on the security situation at the time of travel. Unless you are in the business section from Budapest, it would be 5-10 min before you are off the plane. If the US bound plane closes door 15-20 min before gate pull off, you have 25 min to go through Schengen exit process and US specific security(s). This looks like a very tight connection.

I interpret being able to book a ticket in terms of what it means to the carrier. If allowing that, irrespective of whether all the connections are successful or not, contributes to the higher profit, they would allow that kind of booking.

I think it depends entirely on the unknowable: whether the first flight arrives on time and if you are able to deplane quickly, neither event having to do with the efficiency of the Zurich Airport. Even being 5-10 minutes late because of a thunderstorm or having a minor delay in connecting the jetway could foul you up.

Do you know if your Zurich/Newark flight originates at Zurich? If not, there is the chance your second flight will not depart on time.

Personally, I'd want a longer connection, but do you feel lucky?

There is a train (I call it the Moo Cow Train) at Zürich Flughafen that transfers passengers between terminals.

I would find out it you have to change terminals.

45 minutes seems dicey to me.

Thin

Me too. We’ve made 55 minutes twice by the skin of our noses and that was not connecting to the US. Have to say we have not found the place especially efficient.