Chambéry Savoie airport is located in the heart of the French Alps, making it a great alternative to Geneva for reaching many of the country’s best known ski areas. So it’s an airport that’s increasingly popular with tour operators and scheduled airlines. There are now direct ski-season scheduled flights there from nine UK airports and many more from tour operator charters.
Crystal Ski Holidays alone brings well over 30,000 British skiers to the French Alps via Chambéry Savoie airport every year with up to 20 flights once a week from 15 regional UK airports including Gatwick, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol and Dublin. Nearly half-a-million Crystal customers have used this route since 2004.
The airport is only an hour away from Les Arcs, Méribel and Megève, one hour and fifteen minutes from La Plagne, Courchevel and Les Menuires, and less than one hour and thirty minutes from Val d’Isère, Tignes, Val Thorens and many other ski resorts reached via quick and direct road access to Rhône-Alpes motorway network as there’s no major city to pass through as you leave the airport.
The problem has been that outwith ski season weekends, Chambéry Savoie airport is pretty quiet so when up to 13,000 of passengers descend on a Saturday, despite the fact that the airport’s operator VINCI recruits and trains more than 250 seasonal workers in the airport providing efficient management of ski flights, its limited facilities have struggled to cope.
That’s all set to change this winter, the airport’s VINVI Airports promise, following a total renovation. The terminal has been completely renovated and re-designed to provide a better experience and manage passenger flows for this coming winter 2016-17. The investment is reported to be €10m over coming years.
“The airport has focussed on improving the quality of service provided to passengers,” a statement on behalf of VINCI Airports.
Among the improvements for departing passengers and that all check-in points are now equipped with belts, facilitating baggage management and reducing passenger waiting times. The security and customs control area has been reorganised to improve passenger flow and the boarding area has been expended and refurbished. The duty free shop has also been relocated and extended and there’s been a total renovation of toilets for improved passenger comfort. New signage will also be installed to help passenger find their way around inside the terminal.
“We are proud to welcome Crystal Ski Holidays’ tens of thousands British skiers every year and to offer them a better quality of services and make their journey more comfortable to the ski resorts,” said Nicolas Pelerin, Chambéry Savoie Airport Manager.
It’s especially good news as there are four new routes this winter from London Stansted, Doncaster, Manchester and Norwich.
All flights start from 16 December.
British Airways now has flights from London City and London Stansted (including a daily flight from London City from 16 December 2016 to 9 January 2017) and Flybe has flights from Birmingham, Cardiff, Doncaster, Exeter, Manchester, Norwich and Southampton.
“Only a few years ago, the airport celebrated the millionth passengers arriving there. We are delighted to be working closely with our partners at Chambéry Savoie airport to improve the experience for Crystal customers, providing a good platform for a stress-free start and end to their ski holiday,” said Nial McLean, General Manager France, Switzerland and Andorra, Crystal Ski Holidays.
