Rapperswil is on the list because ZRH is reachable and busy. 223 scheduled nonstop destinations and 63 operating carriers mean the desk is rarely stuck for a routing, and 1 hour of road means you are rarely too far to take it. Those two facts together are the whole reason Rapperswil has a page of its own.
Open · Switzerland desk · Rapperswil
On Board Courier, Rapperswil
Time critical hand carry assignments from Rapperswil. One consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature, 1 hour between your front door and the check in desk at ZRH.
OnBoard Courier is a United Arab Emirates company, contracted by ICSL FZE and run from Dubai. A city named on this site is a place we cover and route through, not a separate company in that city. Assignments are contracted under UAE law, and the terms are published in full under legal and policies.
Based inRapperswil, Saint Gallen
Nearest gateZRH · Zurich
Drive to the aircraft46 km · 1 hour
Nonstop from ZRH223 airports
EngagementFreelance · per assignment
Fee per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600
Apply for this position
Applying is free. Freelance · self-employed ·
posted 7 September 2026 · open until 7 March 2027
What the work pays
The fee for an assignment is agreed with you in writing before you accept it. These are the figures the site publishes, and what the desk covers on top of them.
Top published feeAED 2,000The highest fee the site shows for a single assignment: sealed medical samples in a cooled case, Dubai to Singapore.
Published band, per assignmentAED 900 to 2,600A document pouch to London is AED 1,200, an aircraft part to Frankfurt AED 1,500, an escorted watch on the Berlin lane AED 1,800.
What the flight costs youAED 0The desk books and pays the ticket, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never fronts the fare.
The one payment you makeAED 199, returnedThe Academy, paid once. It comes back in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. Applying itself is free.
Fees vary with the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate, so the desk quotes each assignment individually rather than pretending one number fits every trip. You are self-employed and there is no minimum: accept or decline whatever you like, and declining costs you nothing. Earnings are paid per delivery by bank transfer, they appear in your courier portal, and you can request a payout once the balance reaches AED 200. Apply and see the flight board.
You fly as a passengerOne consignment in the cabin, one handover against signature. No warehouse, no van, no round.
The desk books and pays the ticketFlight, transfers and, where the routing needs it, a hotel are booked before you leave for the airport.
Paid per assignmentA fee agreed in writing before you accept, paid to your bank account after the signature. Applying is free.
How to start, in four steps
1
Apply once
One application covers every country desk. Tell us which passports you hold and where you can travel.
2
Verification and the Academy
Identity and background check, then a short course on customs, handovers and chain of custody.
3
Your first offer
The desk sends the routing, the dates and the fee in writing. You accept or decline, nothing is automatic.
4
Fly, hand over, get paid
Collect, board, clear customs in person, hand over against signature, and the fee is paid to your account.
The assignment
You will usually know the day before, sometimes only in the morning. The desk sends the routing out of ZRH, the sealed consignment reaches you or you collect it, and the drive of 1 hour is timed backwards from the check in deadline rather than the departure. The Gulf sector out of ZRH is nonstop, so there is no connection to miss.
Getting to the aircraft from Rapperswil
Measured door to terminal, Rapperswil to ZRH is 46 km and 1 hour. That is the number the desk uses when it decides whether to call Rapperswil for a departure this evening.
At 1 hour the desk will normally ask you to leave Rapperswil about three hours before departure, more if the routing needs a bag drop cut off. A backup gate changes what can be promised out of Rapperswil. From Rapperswil, Bâle/Mulhouse Euro Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg is 1 hour 42 minutes away and flies to 122 airports nonstop, so the desk has somewhere to move a consignment when the first flight goes.
| IATA | Airport | By road | Driving time | Nonstop |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ZRH | Zurich Kloten | 46 km | 1 hour | 223 |
| BSL | Bâle/Mulhouse Euro Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg | 132 km | 1 hour 42 minutes | 122 |
| FDH | Friedrichshafen | 163 km | 2 hours | 16 |
Rapperswil is a city of 35,000 people in Saint Gallen, and the clock there runs 2 hours behind the Emirates in summer and 3 in winter. Road distances are measured driving routes rather than straight lines, and nonstop counts come from the scheduled route data this site publishes.
What ZRH reaches without a change
The relevant question about ZRH is not how big it is but what it flies. 223 nonstop destinations across 72 countries, and the ones with real frequency are listed here.
| IATA | City | Airport | Frequency | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA | Frankfurt-am-Main | Frankfurt-am-Main | about 14 departures a day | 4 operators: SWISS, Condor, Air Dolomiti |
| PMI | Palma De Mallorca | Palma De Mallorca | about 14 departures a day | 6 operators: easyJet, Condor, Eurowings |
| BER | Berlin | Berlin Brandenburg | about 12 departures a day | 3 operators: SWISS, easyJet, Eurowings |
| LHR | London | London Heathrow | about 12 departures a day | 2 operators: SWISS, British Airways |
| AMS | Amsterdam | Amsterdam Schiphol | about 11 departures a day | 2 operators: SWISS, KLM |
| VIE | Vienna | Vienna Schwechat | about 10 departures a day | 2 operators: Austrian Airlines |
| PRN | Prishtina | Prishtina Priština | about 10 departures a day | 4 operators: easyJet |
| GVA | Geneva | Geneva Cointrin | about 9 departures a day | 2 operators: SWISS |
| CDG | Paris | Paris Charles de Gaulle | about 9 departures a day | 2 operators: SWISS, Air France |
| HAM | Hamburg | Hamburg | about 9 departures a day | 3 operators: SWISS, Eurowings |
Counting every airport a courier in Rapperswil can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 249 airports. Frequencies are average daily flights and change with the season, so the desk checks the live schedule before it offers you anything.
The industry inside this catchment
The industrial geography inside the ZRH catchment explains the deadlines. These facilities are publicly documented and are listed here as context for the work near Rapperswil. None of them is described as a client of ours.
- Novartis, Basel. Research and manufacturing at the group head office. Basel sits where three countries meet and uses three airports. It sits on ZRH, which is 1 hour from Rapperswil by road, and the sector is pharma.
- Roche, Basel and Kaiseraugst. Pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Diagnostics move on shorter clocks than most freight can hold. It sits on ZRH, which is 1 hour from Rapperswil by road, and the sector is pharma.
- Lonza, Visp and Basel. Contract manufacturing of biologics. Contract manufacturing runs to somebody else's deadline, which makes it tighter. It sits on ZRH, which is 1 hour from Rapperswil by road, and the sector is pharma.
Why a courier in Rapperswil is useful to the desk
Most of what the desk moves out of Saint Gallen is small, sealed and late. The constraint is never the size, it is finding a person near enough to ZRH. Rapperswil is near enough: 1 hour to ZRH, on a board with 223 nonstop destinations.
A consignment moving between Rapperswil and the Gulf has a straightforward path. From Rapperswil the Gulf is a single sector: ZRH and AUH are joined nonstop, about 3 departures a day, flown by Etihad Airways. That is roughly 6h 06m in the air over 4,750 km, and it means a consignment can leave Rapperswil in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
The nearest other cities on the Switzerland list
Show the 12 closest, and how far each is from Rapperswil
Uster16 km away, ZRH in 39 minutesZug24 km away, ZRH in 1 hour 2 minutesWinterthur32 km away, ZRH in 41 minutesLuzern44 km away, ZRH in 1 hour 13 minutesSankt Gallen47 km away, FDH in 1 hour 7 minutesSchaffhausen54 km away, ZRH in 55 minutesChur68 km away, FDH in 1 hour 30 minutesBasel101 km away, BSL in 13 minutesThun105 km away, BSL in 1 hour 39 minutesBern109 km away, BSL in 1 hour 22 minutesBellinzona116 km away, MXP in 1 hour 23 minutesBiel/Bienne120 km away, BSL in 1 hour 22 minutes
All 22 Switzerland cities are listed on the Switzerland courier desk, which stays the general application for the country.
The engagement, and who we are looking for
The engagement
- Type: freelance, self-employed. You are an independent courier accepting individual assignments, not an employee, and you decide which ones you take.
- Where it runs: assignments are flown out of ZRH and the other airports listed above, between Switzerland and wherever the consignment is going, with the return leg agreed per mission.
- Hours: variable. An assignment is a single trip, not a shift or a roster.
- How you are paid: a fee per completed assignment, agreed in writing before you accept it. The fees published on this site run from AED 1,200 for a document pouch to AED 2,000 for a cooled medical consignment, and the figure for your assignment reflects the lane, the notice, the waiting time and whether the return is immediate.
- What the desk pays: the flight, the transfers and, where the routing needs it, the hotel. A courier never pays for the ticket and never fronts the fare.
- Applying is free. No payment is required to apply, to be screened or to be placed on the courier list. The Academy costs AED 199, paid once, and is returned in full on top of the fee for your first completed assignment. It is the only payment a courier ever makes to us.
What we look for
- A passport with comfortable remaining validity and free pages, and the right to enter the country on the routing. The desk checks the visa position for your specific passport before any assignment is offered.
- A clean background check and a willingness to be verified. Couriers carry other people’s property.
- Availability at short notice, and a realistic view of the 1 hour drive to ZRH. Most assignments are confirmed hours, not days, before departure.
- Presentable, calm and articulate at a customs counter. The consignment is only as smooth as the person carrying it.
- A working phone, reachable on the number you gave us, for the whole assignment.
What we provide
- The ticket. Always. A courier never pays for the flight and never fronts the fare.
- The paperwork, prepared before you reach ZRH, and a named contact at the desk on both ends.
- A briefing on the consignment, the consignee and what the customs position at the far end looks like.
- A fee per completed assignment, agreed with you in advance and paid by bank transfer after the handover.
Questions about the Rapperswil list
01How far is Rapperswil from ZRH?
About 1 hour, 46 km by road. The desk has that number for every city on the list and uses it to decide who gets called for a departure out of ZRH tonight.
02What can I reach from Rapperswil without a change of aircraft?
ZRH serves 223 airports nonstop across 72 countries with 63 operating carriers, and counting every gate a courier in Rapperswil can drive to, the combined nonstop board is 249 airports. That is the practical range of a single assignment from here before anybody has to connect.
03Getting from Rapperswil to the Emirates: nonstop or not?
From Rapperswil the Gulf is a single sector: ZRH and AUH are joined nonstop, about 3 departures a day, flown by Etihad Airways. That is roughly 6h 06m in the air over 4,750 km, and it means a consignment can leave Rapperswil in the evening and be in the Gulf before the next working day starts.
04Do I have to live in the UAE to be on this list?
No. The desk is in Dubai and the company is Emirati, but the courier list is worldwide and Rapperswil is on it. Where you live changes which assignments you are shown, not whether you qualify.
05Does it cost anything to apply?
No. The Rapperswil list is free to join and free to stay on. The only money that moves from you to us is the AED 199 Academy, paid once, and it comes back on top of the fee for your first completed assignment.
06How is my fee agreed?
One assignment out of ZRH, one fee, agreed in advance. The 1 hour you spend driving there is part of what that figure is calculated on.
Apply to fly out of ZRH
If you can be at ZRH within 1 hour and you have a passport with room in it, the rest is a conversation.
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