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I'll be flying from Asia to Europe via Zurich in the summer. I bought a ticket with Oman Air to Zurich.

Now I'm planning to buy a ticket from Zurich to my home country on a different company, Swiss airlines. If I buy this ticket I'll have exactly 2 hours to transfer from one flight to the other. I arrive in Zurich airport at 19h00 and depart at 21h00.

In Zurich airport, I'll have to pick up my luggage, go through customs and/or immigration, check in my luggage to my home country and catch the flight.

Is it doable? To me it seems quite risky. I've been monitoring the flight time arrival in Zurich and the biggest delay in the last 15 days was a 20-minute delay on arrival (I would then have 1h40 to change flights). Still this is not a guarantee there will be delays.

My other alternative is to stay one night in Zurich and catch the early morning flight.

I'm a citizen of a country belonging to the European Union and Schengen area and my passport is the electronic one - I can use the scan machines to speed up the process - small or no queue at all and like a 10 seconds check only.

I'm also not sure if the arrival and departure terminals are the same. I've flown from Asia (with Swiss) to my home country before on a 1-ticket journey and I had to change terminals taking the airport subway.

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    I can't fully answer your question, but their Information for transfer passengers PDF has estimated times between gates, with and without going through passport control. (Got that from here)
    – Lukas Graf
    Commented Mar 11, 2018 at 22:15
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    The biggest risk here is that you're arranging your own connection, and if you don't make the Swiss flight (or don't make it to the check-in counter before it closes), you could be out a considerable sum of money for a last-minute ticket on the next day's flight, if there's space; the airline is not responsible for your connection at all. I, personally, like to allow a lot more time with separate bookings because I know I'm completely on my own with the connection, but your risk tolerance may vary.
    – Zach Lipton
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 3:32
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    Just to be clear, the information linked by @LukasGraf is for direct gate-to-gate transfer, which applies only if checked through to the final destination, not if you need to reclaim luggage, go through customs, go the the check-in area, check in before the deadline, go through security, and on to your departure gate before the boarding deadline. You may want to ask Oman Air if they can check your luggage through to your final destination.
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 9:35

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Zurich Airport is extremely efficient, so you'll be fine if the incoming flight is on time -- but that's a big if.

If you want to take the gamble, I would recommend you consider the profit-loss tradeoff here: How much would it cost to spend the night in Zurich? (Not cheap either.) What the cost would be of missing your flight? Do you have reasonably priced alternate transportation? Does being late mean mild inconvenience or losing your job?

Personally, I probably wouldn't risk it (I hate missing flights), but your mileage may vary.

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