Until now, handling agents employed by the individual airlines have been responsible for assisting PRMs. From 1 November 2009, Unique (Flughafen Zürich AG) will assume that responsibility.
Zurich Airport assists around 330 passengers with reduced mobility every day. Until now the airlines have paid handling agents to look after PRMs, and the billing for the service has been processed directly between the airline and the handling agent. From 1 November 2009, Unique (Flughafen Zürich AG) will be responsible for the provision and billing of this service. For the purposes of refinancing, the airport operator will charge the airlines a fee of CHF 1 per departing passenger in accordance with the solidarity principle. The PRM fee will be strictly cost neutral for Unique (Flughafen Zürich AG), as it will simply be a matter of reallocating the costs that the airlines had previously paid to their handling agents.
The basis for the reorganisation of assistance for PRMs is an EU directive which transfers the responsibility for handling PRMs to the airport and defines binding, uniform quality standards for handling. This directive was implemented at airports in EU countries on 26 July 2008 and was incorporated into the bilateral civil aviation agreement between Switzerland and the EU on 16 December 2008. The designated date for implementation in Switzerland is 1 November 2009.