Ski flights to the Alps by private jet

The Alps are the single best place in Europe to use an empty leg, and the reason is simple arithmetic. From December to March aircraft fly into Geneva, Chambery, Sion and Salzburg full of skiers and fly home again with nobody on board. Every one of those return sectors is for sale, and the same thing happens in reverse at the end of the week.

Learn which way the traffic is pointing and a midsize jet for eight starts to look like a sensible way to move a chalet party. This page sets out the airports, the prices, the weeks worth targeting and the baggage question that catches out more ski charters than anything else.

Why the Alps produce so many empty legs

Alpine traffic is the most concentrated seasonal movement in European business aviation, and it runs to a rhythm you can plan around.

The Alpine airports, and which resort each one serves

Choosing the airport matters more here than anywhere else in Europe, because the transfer can easily take longer than the flight.

Courchevel altiport, the honest version

What a ski flight costs

Guide prices for the whole aircraft in pounds, one way from London. The empty leg column is what a repositioning sector typically starts at when one exists on the route.

Divide by the party and the comparison becomes obvious. A Latitude to Geneva at 5,300 GBP is around 589 GBP a head with nine on board, which is inside the range of a flexible airline ticket on a Saturday in February, on an aircraft nobody else is on, from a terminal you walk through in twenty minutes.

Two winter costs sit outside the aircraft price and appear as their own lines. De icing, charged by the handling agent at cost and only when it is needed, which in January is most mornings. And a helicopter transfer if you want one, typically 1,300 to 2,600 GBP for the aircraft rather than per person.

Empty leg sectors available now

What our operator network has released at the moment. The list changes through the day, and in season Alpine sectors move faster than anything else on it.

Watch your route on this corridor

Alpine sectors are taken within hours in season. Tell us the resort, the week and how many of you there are, and we will watch the airports that serve it, including the ones you had not thought of.

When to fly, and when to book

Helicopter transfer to the resort

On a Saturday in February the road from Geneva into the Three Valleys can take longer than the flight from London. A helicopter turns that into thirty to forty five minutes, and on the busiest weeks it is the difference between skiing on arrival day and not.

We book the helicopter as part of the same journey rather than leaving you to find one at the FBO. Timings are coordinated with the jet, so a delay on the flight moves the helicopter rather than losing it.

Skis, boards and the baggage question

This is where most ski charters go wrong, and it happens before anyone looks at a price. Ski bags are long, boot bags are heavy, and a light jet hold is smaller than people imagine.

How much luggage each aircraft actually takes

Published hold volumes for the types that fly Alpine routes most often. Treat them as a guide: the figure varies between individual aircraft and configurations, and volume alone does not decide it.

Three things the numbers do not show, and they are usually what settles the question.

• Length beats volume. A ski bag is 170 to 190 centimetres. Some holds are roomy but short, and a compartment that swallows eight soft cases will refuse a single pair of 185s. We check the actual compartment, not the class.
• Weight is a real limit. Every aircraft has a maximum take off weight, and on a short Alpine runway at altitude the margin shrinks. Eight passengers, eight sets of skis and a full fuel load are not always possible at the same time.
• The cabin is not spare hold. Loose bags cannot sit in the aisle for take off and landing. What does not fit in the compartment stays behind.

Send us what you are carrying, in bags rather than in kilos, and we will confirm it against the specific aircraft before anything is booked. It takes one message and it prevents the only ski charter problem that cannot be fixed on the day.

Questions about flying to the Alps

• • Can we land at the resort itself?

  • By helicopter, yes, and at Courchevel and Megeve that is the normal way to arrive. By chartered jet, almost never. Altiports are short, steep and high, and access for commercial charter is restricted to a small number of specifically qualified operators flying turboprops.

    The practical route is a jet to Chambery or Geneva and a helicopter for the last stretch, which we arrange as one journey.

• • Is a private flight worth it for a week's skiing?

  • For two people, rarely. For six or eight with equipment it often is, because the aircraft costs the same whoever is on it, and a Saturday in the Alps is precisely when scheduled travel is at its worst: full flights, long queues at baggage reclaim and a transfer that starts hours later than it should.

    Send us the party size and we will run the comparison against airline fares on your dates rather than ask you to take it on trust.

• • What happens if the weather closes the airport?

  • Alpine fields are weather sensitive and a diversion is always possible, particularly at the mountain airports. Operators plan alternates as a matter of course, most often Geneva, Lyon or Zurich, and we will tell you what the alternate is before you fly rather than after.

    If your arrival is genuinely time critical, that is an argument for a larger airport and a longer road transfer rather than the shortest possible drive.

• • Can we fly out and come back on empty legs?

  • Sometimes, and in the shoulder weeks quite often, though they will usually be different aircraft and different operators. In peak weeks the honest answer is no.

    The pattern that works most reliably is an empty leg in the direction the aircraft are already going and a standard charter for the other half, which still removes a large share of the cost of chartering both.

• • Can our dog come?

  • Yes, in the cabin. Flying out of Britain the rules that matter are the destination country's, and Alpine sectors are straightforward in that direction. Coming back into Great Britain the operator and the route have to be approved for animals, which narrows the options considerably.

    Tell us at the enquiry stage and we will filter on it from the start.

Plan your ski flight

Tell us the resort, the week and the size of the party. We will come back with the airports that actually serve it, any empty leg that fits, and the standard charter price alongside, so you can see what the flexibility is worth.

Call +44 7857 574938 or message the same number on WhatsApp.