The Chambery Airport is situated beside the ‘Lac du Bourget’ (Bourget lake), 10 kilometres from the Chambery town centre. During recent years, the Chambery airport has become very popular with skiing tourists coming to the region of ‘Savoie’ during the wintertime.
During the year 2000, 114 144 passengers were recorded to have used the Chambery Airport. Ten years later, in 2010, there were 231 820 passengers who had flown to/from this airport (Union des Aéroports Francais (UAF)). These statistics show the rapid increase in popularity of the Chambery Airport, but why has this ‘boom’ in passenger numbers occurred?
Low Cost Flights
During the last decade, there has been one major change to the Chambery Airport which has caused the increase in passenger numbers, the introduction of new low-cost airfares from various destinations in Europe. Many of these new airfares are for flights originating from the United Kingdom and are available only during the winter ski season.
The Airline companies that now operate at the Chambery Airport include Flybe.com, BMIbaby, Jet2.com, British Airways, Titan Airways, Transavia.com, Thomson Airways and Globus.
These airline companies now provide flight paths to Chambery from the airports of Birmingham, Bristol, Copenhagen, Cardiff, Dublin, East Midlands, Exeter, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, London City, London Gatwick, Glasgow, London Stansted, Newcastle, Manchester, Moscow, Rotterdam and Southampton.
Geographical Location – Ski Transfers from Chambery Airport
Secondary to the changes in airfares, the Chambery Airport is definitely appealing to tourists due to its’ geographical location. When comparing the distance and travelling time between the Geneva Airport, Lyon Airport, Chambery Airport and Grenoble Airport to the ski resorts in the ‘Savoie’ region, the Chambery Airport is considerably closer than the others.
On average, one hour of taxi travelling time is saved by using this airport when ski transfering to the ‘Savoyard’ ski resorts. The following Chambery Airport transfers have been noted with their estimated ski taxi transfer times.
- Courchevel (1h 20mins)
- Meribel (1h 15 mins)
- La Tania (1h15 mins)
- Val Thorens (1h 40 mins)
- Les Menuires (1h 30 mins)
- St Martin de Belleville (1h 25mins)
- La Plagne (1h 40mins)
- Peisey Vallandry (1h 30mins)
- Les Arcs (1h 45mins)
- La Rosiere (1 45mins)
- Ste Foy (1h 35mins)
- Tignes (1h 50 mins)
- Val D’Isere (1h 50 mins)
- Valmorel (1h 10mins)
- Alp d’Huez (1h45mins)
- Les 2 Alpes (1h45mins)
- Vaujany (1h35mins)
- Les Saisies (1h05mins)
- St Sorlin d’Arves (1h)
- St Francois LC (1h)
- St Jean de Maurienne (1h)
- Val Cenis (1h 45mins)
- Val Frejus (1h 15)
The actions of the airport during the last decade have saved passengers money. Together with the advantage of short transfers from Chambery to some of the best known ski resorts in the world, the Chambery Airport has become an appealing and logical choice for thousands of passengers.
