- One of the best observation deck in the world here.
(exciting rock music)
- Let's go.
- We are stopping right between the two runway intersection.
You'll hear the ATC communications, which is.
(radio chattering)
There you go.
So now we're going for a behind the scenes tour.
(record scratching)
So quiet.
You can hear the birds.
- Moment we passing Concourse E.
It's closed.
- It feels like a little bit like ghost town here.
Hello?
I can almost hear my echoing here.
It's like completely closed.
No shops open.
But I've never been to an entire empty terminal.
It's so quiet.
I can just literally whisper.
(record scratching)
This used to be A380
all the big aeroplane taxi.
The police is here.
If you are tired, just lay on the grass, spotting.
This is almost like a roller coaster.
(bag slams)
Oh my God, I slammed it on there.
- No passenger allowed,
that's the reason why I have to touch here.
- Oh, special area.
(upbeat pop music)
(aeroplane engines roaring)
(upbeat pop music)
- Are we ready for the bus tour?
- Yes, let's go, Renee.
- Let's go.
(chill electronic music)
Fantastic bus tour.
But this is the highlights.
We are stopping right between the two runway intersection.
We are standing now, right here on this point,
near the runway crossings.
We have different runways.
We have the longest runway,
16, 34, 3.7 kilometres long,
and the numbers are equal to the compass heading.
That means runway 34 on the compass is 340 degrees,
our runway 28 to 10 is the smallest one
with 2.5 kilometres of length.
And we'd have a third one behind the Concourse E
that's 14, 32, 3.3 kilometres long.
We have some speakers and we can listen to the ATC.
- Press this green button.
You hear the ATC communication, which is.
(radio chattering)
There you go.
Really amazing.
And now there's a United Dreamliner, just down taxiing.
And soon it's going to go past us.
It's going to be a show here.
(aeroplane engines roaring)
(radio chattering)
(funky pop music)
(aeroplane engines roaring)
(funky pop music)
You like the tour?
- Oh, I love it.
It's very interesting.
And to stand between the runways
is a very exhilarating feeling.
- It's really beautiful here.
Green grass, blue sky.
Just like the post card from Switzerland.
The only problem during the COVID
is there's not so many movements right now.
- Okay, sorry Sam.
We have to go back to the Concourse B,
so please board the bus.
- Fantastic tour, Renee.
- Thank you so much.
- But you know, it was never enough time.
When you do plane spotting,
there's always next one, next one.
One more minute.
- One more, one more. One more, one more.
I wish every airport in the world
to have something like this.
- I think it's unique.
- Unique, exactly.
- I think it's unique.
- So many so many people came out
and this is the peak time,
rush hour around one o'clock at Zurich.
All the big aeroplanes going out right now, too busy.
(plane engines roaring)
(children cheering)
(plane engines roaring)
My God, look at that.
It just make me so, so happy,
when you see the plane tail go airborne.
Where are you guys from?
- Switzerland.
- Oh, Switzerland, of course.
- I was a flight attendant,
or will be a flight attendant, but Coronavirus.
That was my happy place to watch everything.
- It makes you happy, right?
When you come here.
- Yes, like my second home.
- Hi, Sam, very nice to have you here in Zurich,
in my home base because I'm also aviation video producer.
I have a video channel on YouTube.
It's called "Rush Productions".
You know, in Switzerland, aviation is a big thing.
We have a lot of fans from young to old.
You can watch here, at the airport,
you can go everywhere.
The accessibility is so great.
I think nowhere else at the world,
but this is really amazing.
I really miss that filming moments here.
My special moment was when Singapore Airline's
first A380 was washed down by the fire department,
here at the at the first flight of Singapore Airlines A380.
This is already going to be 10 years ago.
I was in the helicopter filming the first landing.
It was really amazing.
- Hopefully you will see the A380 comes back
and Zurich see them again.
- We going to watch it again, then.
- You were looking for me again because I am late again
and Swiss people run on Swiss time, very on time.
- We will go to the behind the scenes tours.
So, are you ready?
- So now we're going for a behind the scenes tour,
Zurich Airport.
- We as tour guide, we have a lot of letters on the patch.
That means we can open almost every door inside here.
- Renee you are my best friend today.
You're the best friend to all the sponsors.
(chill music)
- 350 from Qatar Airlines just arrived.
You see the people are already working.
There's a few under the nose landing gear,
then they have to plug in the power cables,
secure the main landing gear connector.
So the passenger bridge so the passengers can de-board.
So a lot of work is now going on.
Now you can see they bring some stairs
just to get up to the controls to open the cargo hold.
(chill music)
(machines whirring)
Then they connect the tubes to the aircraft
and then the aircraft gets cool air from the airport
so we can shut down all the engines,
the air conditioning is safe by the support of the airport.
Behind me is a high loader,
in front of the high loader there is a double chain
because should one chain fail,
you have the second one to overtake.
So the platform is secure.
That's the reason why we have two.
In aviation everything is about safety.
(bus rumbling)
- [Sam] You order a huge bus for me.
- Yes, just for you, the huge bus
and he will drive us to the concourse
and I have to show you something interesting over there.
- [Sam] So, let's go.
- Please board the bus.
- This is your seat here.
- (mumbles) in the front?
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
I must say the Swiss people are really generous.
Not everyday, I've got a seat in front
next to the bus driver here.
This is awesome.
(chill music)
That was a really cool ride up front.
- Hey Sam, we arrived at the Concourse E midfield dock
at the airport in Zurich.
And behind me another beauty,
an A350 from Singapore Airlines.
I think you are already familiar with it.
- I remember Singapore Airlines used to send A380 to Zurich.
And this time at the whole
Concourse E Midfield here's deserted.
It's so quiet.
You can hear the birds.
I'm not talking metal birds.
I'm talking the real birds.
You can hear.
It's a unreal.
- At the moment we passing Concourse E,
it's closed because of the COVID crisis that we have
and all the flights will leave
from Concourse A and Concourse B.
- Yeah, I observed, it feels like
a little bit like ghost town here.
- Yes, a ghost town.
- It's very unusual to have a whole terminal closed.
And I think also this is a part of the history
in 10 years, 20 years looking back probably this is
the only time the terminal is not used and closed.
So, secret entrance.
- Secret entrance to (mumbles).
- [Sam] Oh my gosh.
Oh, there's light.
(keypad beeping)
The door opens this way.
- Yes.
(Renee laughs)
- In Asia, we call it his open sesame.
This is an experience.
I'm going to see a terminal which is completely closed.
No people inside.
What an experience, let's see.
Oh, so quiet.
Hello?
I can almost hear my echoing here.
There's no flights, but there's still announcements.
- Yes, the COVID announcements.
- [Announcer] Masks mandatory,
thank you for your cooperation.
- The airport in Zurich has
the biggest surround system in Switzerland
because we have 32,000 loud speakers inside the buildings.
- [Sam] 32,000?
- 32,000.
(eerie music)
- It's like completely closed.
No shops open.
And the elevator's closed as well.
(eerie music)
This is definitely an experience.
I've been to so many airport,
but I've never been to an entire empty terminal.
It's so quiet.
I can just literally whisper.
There's no noise at all.
(record scratching)
- You know that we have another observation deck
here in Concourse E, you enjoyed now Concourse B,
and now we will go upstairs
to the observation deck and concourse.
- [Sam] Oh, there's a another one here, I didn't know.
- There's another one and it's open sometimes
for public and normally for the passenger as well.
Here's playground over there.
We have some snack ottomans on this side.
And the lovely view to the Concourse A and Concourse B.
ATC, you can listen to the ATC, traffic control.
Now just enjoy this.
- Oh, wow.
Lovely to see across the field here.
Yeah, from here you can see a lots of aeroplane
the big aeroplanes are parked here in Concourse E,
they're not flying right at the moment.
More secrets.
- More secrets.
- [Sam] More secrets.
- I show you every secret today at the airport in Zurich.
- So, this is great.
We're coming down now on the ground level to see
all the planes are currently parked at a E Concourse.
This is one of the most beautiful livery on the A340.
Every time I come to Switzerland I see Edelweiss,
but it's striking, beautiful livery
and I hope she will fly again.
- Now there is someone coming in from Heraklion.
So let's jump to the other location
and we will see it after landing.
- [Sam] Oh, so you mean there's one inbound at the moment,
- Yes, one inbound A340 from Edelweiss.
- [Sam] Let's go catch it.
- Okay.
So we will cross the taxiway.
So we have to walk a little bit faster
just in case an aircraft should come.
- I don't think there'll be a plane coming right now,
but let's walk quickly.
- Yeah, trust me.
- This is very cool.
Walking on taxiway.
This used to be A380, triple seven.
All the big aeroplane taxi,
now where I'm walking past the taxiway.
Okay, the police is here.
(sirens blaring)
Interesting, one minute we were passing the taxiway,
the next minute police are asking us.
But of course we are cleared.
We follow the tour guide.
I was told A340's on final approach, let's run.
(Sam laughs)
Is this Edelweiss flower?
This is Edelweiss flower?
- [Renee] Nope.
- No, that's Edelweiss,
Edelweiss is coming here.
(light jazz music)
I still haven't seen an Edelweiss flower,
but I've seen lots of Edelweiss A340 at the airport.
In Switzerland there's grass everywhere,
even at the airport.
If you are tired, just lay on the grass,
spotting in between all the planes' movements.
(light jazz music)
- So the bus is going again and pick us up.
Then we drive to the baggage sorting system
and continue with the tour.
So continuing the tour,
let's go to the baggage sorting system.
Because we will go downstairs,
there is no passenger allowed,
that's the reason why I have to touch here.
- [Sam] Oh, special area.
- Yes, special area.
Part of the baggage sorting system
where the staff members who sort the baggage of each flight.
- This is the baggage system.
How the bags from check-in deliver to the aircraft.
- Over there, you'll see the
external scanners for the baggage.
(funky electronic music)
- This is almost like a roller coaster.
It's really interesting.
- You see the baggage come up from
the baggage sorting system, off to the screening.
After the screening we have to
sort the bags according to the flight.
So there are two ways to
deliver the baggage to the aircraft.
One is with the waggon,
and the other one we see over there (mumbles).
Two systems that we have around the world.
Open baggage and waggon, or with the cold chambers.
(funky electronic music)
This is for the flight to Geneva.
We see that 96, bags are checked in,
25 are already loaded to the computer,
20 are still coming,
and 51 are at the airport
but our system didn't read the baggage checkout.
So that's the baggage you're seeing 51 at the moment.
(device beeps)
(luggage slams)
(device beeps)
- [Sam] How many bags do you load everyday like this?
- Up to thousands.
- [Sam] Thousands?
You're very strong, you have big strong muscles.
(both laughing)
I need to work here one day
to gain some muscle and lose some weight.
- Come to work here.
- Well it turned out he actually
watched my video and he's a fan.
- I am a huge fan of you.
- Oh, thank you.
So you will see yourself in my video soon.
- Yes, I will.
- Okay, so I know what you're wanting me to do,
you want me to help you to load the bags?
- Yes, exactly.
- Okay, let's do it.
First, oh, you track it first.
This one is transit to Newark.
- It's transit to New York?
- Transit to New York, to Newark.
- It's clear to load.
- Okay, so you'll scan and then
the system tells you they clear to load.
Now I'll do the manual part.
(bag slams)
Am I doing good?
Oh my God, I slammed it on there.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Okay, okay.
Some of these baggage from America are super heavy.
Just two of them, I'm already tired.
You did a great job.
Thank you so much.
Keep up the good work.
- It's very nice meeting you.
- Keep up the good work.
- Normally we have 36,000 bags each day, average,
during summer season around 50,000.
and at the moment during the COVID crisis
we have less than 36,000 baggage.
- So happy to see how open-minded Zurich Airport is.
They have this kind of special tour behind the scenes
to show all the people who's interested in aviation.
- We do everything for our visitors and customers
and it was a pleasure to have you
here at the airport in Zurich
- Keep up the good work and aviation will be back.
- We will do.
(chill pop music)
(logo whooshes)
(bell dings)