Winter Ski

[TheLocalYokel]

i think I'm correct in saying the flight to Bulgaria with bh air is not listed. is that flight not operational this year,they were advertised as operating.

The only Bulgarian charter route shown in the printed version of the BRS winter timetable is the Saturday Sofia for Balkan Holidays. As with last winter the carrier is Enter Air. In 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 BH Air operated the flight and up to and including 2011-2012 Thomson operated a second weekly flight to Sofia for First Choice, Thomson, Crystal and Neilson Holidays. These companies no longer appear to offer Bulgarian ski holidays from BRS, although Crystal (part of TUI of course) and Inghams certainly do for most of the other ski destinations from the airport.

There are fewer tour companies offering ski holidays from BRS than was the case several years ago. I suspect that a number of the smaller companies may no longer exist.

Until about nine years ago there was also a weekly ski charter flight to Plovdiv in Bulgaria but that didn't last for many winters.

Furthermore, Wizz Air now operates a 2 x weekly scheduled Sofia route and in the ski season some winter sports enthusiasts may well use it.

 

[superking]

looks like I'm missing a few years some where. a senior moment lol.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ski Season 2017-2018 - weekly charters

There will be 11 this season, one more than in 2016-2017. Destinations and frequency will remain as the previous winter except Chambery which sees an additional (third) weekly rotation that is operated by Enter Air.

Carriers remain as winter 2016-2017 except Verona where a TOM B 757 replaces a Jet2 B 733.

Saturdays

Chambery Thomson B 738
Salzburg Thomson B 757
Geneva Thomas Cook A 321
Geneva Thomson B 757
Innsbruck Austrian A 320
Verona Thomson B 757
Sofia Enter Air B 738
Innsbruck Austrian A 319

Sundays

Turin Thomson B 757
Chambery Enter Air B 738
Chambery Titan A B757

Total 11: Chambery 3, Geneva 2, Innsbruck 2, Verona 1, Sofia 1, Salzburg 1 and Turin 1.

In addition easyJet continues to operate weekly to Kittila - on Sundays. They operated up to 3 x weekly in the 'Santa' season. Presumably the flights are now aimed at ski holidays for a tour operator or operators as they don't appear in the easyJet booking engine. A similar thing happened last winter and I believe it carried on until the end of January.

As usual there are numerous scheduled flights to airports that are either primarily ski destinations in winter or give access to ski holidays, viz:

easyJet: Geneva 22 x weekly; Barcelona 10 x weekly; Toulouse 7 x weekly; Venice MP 7 x weekly; Basel 3 x weekly; Grenoble 3 x weekly; Vienna 2 x weekly; Pisa 2 x weekly; Innsbruck 2 x weekly; Salzburg 2 x weekly; Lyon weekly; Turin weekly

Ryanair: Venice MP 4 x weekly; Bergamo 3 x weekly; Bucharest 2 x weekly

bmi regional: Milan Malpensa 3 x weekly

I make that 74 weekly scheduled flights each week in the ski season.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Saturday 10 February 2018

Looking at next week's Mayfly there appear to be some additional ski charters over and above the regular programme set out in my previous post. No doubt it's because the schools break up on Friday 9 February.

Grenoble operated by a Vueling A320. The aircraft positions in from Barcelona at 0700 and departs for Grenoble at 0740. There will be three Grenoble flights that day; the others are the regular easyJet flights.

Enter Air B738 will operate two flights to Sofia instead of the usual one.

Not a charter but there will be six easyJet flights to Geneva with the additional one operated by easyJet Switzerland as has been the case at half term in recent years. In addition the usual TUI and TCX flights will operate giving eight Geneva flights on the day.

 

[superking]

Good lot of rotations to GVA. There must be some good sking around the area. I wonder if all the flights will be full,if they are that will be good pax loadings to GVA

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Good lot of rotations to GVA. There must be some good sking around the area. I wonder if all the flights will be full,if they are that will be good pax loadings to GVA

22 easyJet flights to GVA this week plus the charters. It's been like this for a number of years right through the ski season albeit the extra easyJet Switzerland only usually operates in the half term. It has to be presumed they make acceptable money out of it.

 

[Severn]

Saturday 10 February 2018 - Winter Ski Flights

Today saw the following 26 departures to ski airports:

Austria - 5

Innsbruck - Austrian A319
Innsbruck - Austrian A320
Salzburg - easyJet A319
Salzburg - easyJet A319
Salzburg - TUI B752​

Bulgaria - 2

Sofia - Enter Air B738
Sofia - Enter Air B738​

France - 6

Chambéry - TUI B738
Grenoble - easyJet A319
Grenoble - easyJet A320
Grenoble - Vueling A320
Lyon - easyJet A319
Toulouse - easyJet A319​

Italy - 4

Milan Bergarmo - Ryanair B738
Venice - easyJet A320
Venice - Ryanair B738
Verona - TUI B752​

Spain - 1

Barcelona - easyJet A320​

Switzerland - 8

Geneva - easyJet Switzerland A319
Geneva - easyJet A319
Geneva - easyJet A319
Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - Thomas Cook A321
Geneva - TUI B752​

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A lot of winter sports enthusiasts there. I've visited both Switzerland and Austria many times in summer but never in winter. BRS has punched well above its weight in this market for many years.

 

[Severn]

Sunday 11 February 2018 - Winter Ski Flights

Today saw the following 15 departures to ski airports:

Austria - 1

Innsbruck - easyJet A320​

Finland - 1

Kittilä - easyJet A320​

France - 4

Basel - easyJet A319
Chambéry - Enter Air B738
Grenoble - easyJet A319
Toulouse - easyJet A319​

Italy - 3

Turin - easyJet A319
Turin - TUI B752
Venice - easyJet A320​

Spain - 2

Barcelona - easyJet A319
Barcelona - easyJet A319​

Switzerland - 4

Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - easyJet A320
Geneva - easyJet A320​

 

[superking]

A part from 2 flights from easy jet and 1 flight from TUI per week.
What has changed to see a big drop in weekly flights to Salzburg compared to say 10 years or so. All the major tour companies used to offer Salzburg but not now.
In short does it mean things have changed in Europe regards ski venues,or has any one any ideas why this is.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

A part from 2 flights from easy jet and 1 flight from TUI per week.
What has changed to see a big drop in weekly flights to Salzburg compared to say 10 years or so. All the major tour companies used to offer Salzburg but not now.
In short does it mean things have changed in Europe regards ski venues,or has any one any ideas why this is.

Until about seven years ago Thomas Cook also operated a weekly SZG in the ski season. Ryanair operated SZG in the 2007-2008 ski season but that might have been before easyJet came onto the route.

What I find even odder is the absence of a summer SZG. For many years Thomson operated 2 x weekly in summer and for a while a third weekly rotation was operated by European Aviation for a tour company or companies. It might be thought that even a 1 x weekly summer SZG by easyJet would be popular and probably TUI would take seats on it as they do, for example, on easyJet's BRS-GVA flights for lakes and mountains holidays.

There is a summer Innsbruck for Inghams.

Looking at its passenger figure stats Salzburg Airport hasn't grown in over a decade. In 2006 it handled 1.878 million and in 2017 1.890 million.

 

[Red Flyer]

BRS-ILD will return for W18/19 with Neilson Ski. They will be using BHX based aircraft on a W into BRS.

 

[Jerry]

BRS-ILD will return for W18/19 with Neilson Ski. They will be using BHX based aircraft on a W into BRS.

Do you know who the airline is?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Do you know who the airline is?

They previously operated in the ski seasons of 12/13, 13/14 and 14/15 using Flybe E195 aircraft on Sundays.

 

[Red Flyer]

Oops!! Sorry BE

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ski Season 2018-2019 - weekly charters

With no Mayfly it's more difficult this year to establish the programme but with the 'help' of the BRS website and FR24 (which doesn't show all the flights that operated) this weekend I make the following total. There are eleven this year, the same total as last winter but one of the Chambery flights (on Sunday) operated last year by Titan does not appear this time round but Lleida reappears after a few years' absence operated by Flybe.

Other than Flybe, the carriers and aircraft types are the same as last winter.

Saturdays

Chambery TUI B 738
Salzburg TUI B 757
Geneva Thomas Cook A 321
Geneva TUI B 757
Innsbruck Austrian A 320
Verona TUI B 757
Sofia Enter Air B 738
Innsbruck Austrian A 319

Sundays

Turin TUI B 757
Chambery Enter Air B 738
Lleida Flybe E175*

*Flight not shown on FR24 so I have assumed an E175

Total 11: Chambery 2, Geneva 2, Innsbruck 2, Verona 1, Sofia 1, Salzburg 1 Turin 1 and Lleida 1.

In addition easyJet continues to operate weekly to Kittila - on Sundays for a tour operator with flights not shown on the easyJet booking engine.

As usual there are numerous scheduled flights to airports that are either primarily ski destinations in winter or give access to ski holidays, viz:

easyJet: Geneva 22 x weekly; Barcelona 10 x weekly; Venice MP 7 x weekly; Toulouse 4 x weekly; Basel 3 x weekly; Grenoble 3 x weekly; Vienna 2 x weekly; Pisa 2 x weekly; Innsbruck 2 x weekly; Salzburg 2 x weekly; Lyon weekly; Turin weekly; Sofia weekly; Ostersund weekly
Total 61

Ryanair: Venice MP 5 x weekly; Bergamo 3 x weekly; Bucharest 2 x weekly; Sofia weekly
Total 11

This gives an overall total of up to 72 weekly flights which is two down on last winter through the absence of flybmi's 3 x weekly Milan Malpensa and easyJet's Toulouse reducing from daily to 4 x weekly. On the plus side there are new routes by easyJet to Sofia and Ostersund (both weekly), by Ryanair to Sofia (weekly) and an increase from 4 to 5 x weekly by Ryanair on its Venice MP service.

 

[NOSIGWX]

Looks like this years ski charters will be similar to last year. Austrian, Enter Air, & Titan operating in addition to the based carriers.

 

[Marko1]

Has anyone replaced the tcx Saturday flight to Geneva ?

 

[NOSIGWX]

Has anyone replaced the tcx Saturday flight to Geneva ?

Looks like it will be the 5 EZY's to GVA on a Saturday.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The coming winter's easyJet BRS-GVA programme appears to be the same as last winter in terms of rotations per day each week:

Monday 3
Tuesday 2
Wednesday 2
Thursday 2
Friday 3
Saturday 5
Sunday 4
Total 21

For a couple of weeks over the February half-term there will be a sixth Saturday rotation, operated by easyJet Switzerland. This has happened at February half-term in recent years although I'm not sure if it happened in February this year.

The weekly Thomas Cook ski flight to Geneva operated for Esprit, Inghams and Thomas Cook. Inghams appear to be taking seats on easyJet for the coming winter.

TUI's weekly ski flight to Geneva usually caters for Crystal Ski which is a TUI company.

The new TUI weekly ski flight to Memmingen, Germany is still advertised on the BRS website but test bookings there and on the Crystal Ski website (for whom I presume the flight is aimed) come up with nothing. Instead test bookings on the Crystal Ski website show Bavarian holidays flown via Salzburg, both from BRS and from LGW which was the other airport orginally advertised with a Memmingen route.