The Skymetro at Zurich Airport connects the Airside Center to Dock E. This satellite terminal is used mainly for intercontinental flights. The 1.1km journey on this fully automated underground cable-drawn train link takes three minutes. This is an ideal opportunity to welcome or bid farewell to international visitors with an atmospheric short film depicting Switzerland as a holiday and travel destination.

LED technology adds variety

The tunnel cinema project is a partnership between Switzerland Tourism ST and Flughafen Zürich AG. Since it was introduced in 2006, Heidi (the narrator of the old short film) has welcomed an average of eight million travellers a year from the walls of the Skymetro tunnel. A series of fixed screens created a flipbook-style effect on the short journey.

This was replaced in January 2020 by a more modern version using LED technology. 432 one-metre-high LED strips display the views on the tunnel walls in simple digital fashion. This enables ST and Flughafen Zürich AG to show a changing selection of destinations and sights from across the whole of Switzerland – these started with Zermatt and the Matterhorn, and Engelberg and Titlis.

Longstanding marketing partnership

Zurich Airport has been a strategic partner of ST since 2004. Through this long-term marketing partnership, the tourism marketing organisation ST has put its reputation, knowledge of international markets and extensive marketing platforms at the airport’s disposal in a targeted, systematic way. The benefits to ST include access to communication platforms belonging to Flughafen Zürich AG, which it has used in projects to selectively promote Switzerland as a holiday, travel and conference destination. The Skymetro tunnel cinema is a good example of this.