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British Airways launches flights from Stansted to Chambery

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BA Cityflyer, the subsidiary which operates Embraer 190 services from London City Airport, is trialling a new route from London Stansted.

(As a reminder, BA needs to find a use for its Embraer 190 fleet at City Airport over the weekend when the airport is closed for 24 hours.)

The new route is to Chambery, for the ski season.

BA Cityflyer launches flights from London Gatwick to Chambery

There will be one flight per week on a Sunday, starting on 13th December. The return flight will be on a Saturday. The last outbound flight will be on 22nd March.

Flights will leave Stansted at 08.40 on Sundays, arriving in Chambery at 11.20. The return leaves Chambery at 15.50 on Saturday, arriving into Stansted at 16.40.

(I know these times sound wrong, but they are not. The aircraft will fly to Chambery on a Saturday from another airport, not Stansted, and depart Chambery on Sunday, also not to Stansted, in a ‘W’ formation.)

If you want to fly out to France on a Saturday, the Gatwick to Chambery service, also operated by BA Cityflyer, is also returning for Winter 2025/26.

Flights are bookable now for cash or Avios at ba.com.


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Comments (12)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • ExExpat says:

    Worst ski airport in Europe! I avoid Chambery at all costs for skiing – the airport is awful and gets so overcrowded! It’s in desperate need of investment to expand and provide more seating and food outlets for departures. Severe lack of loos. Gate seating practically non-existent. I was there in January (unavoidable as it was a package holiday) and the terminal was so full that my flight was put on a bus to simply ease the overcrowding – we sat on the bus stationary for at least 20 minutes before being boarded. The arrival experience is no better, the two baggage carousels are so close together you can barely move when several flights land at a similar time and everyone has a hold bag to collect. It’s a shame because location wise it’s ideal for many resorts and a shorter transfer time than some of the bigger airports like Geneva.

    • Nate1309 says:

      Agreed. Hell on earth.

    • jj says:

      I always avoid Chambery for the same reason, although I suspect that it’s considerably better on a Sunday than a Saturday. It’s also prone to weather disruption due to the difficult geography.

      Milan Linate is my preferred gateway to the Alps. Civilised airport and largely traffic-free transfers to resorts with much better food than France.

      Having said that, more options are always good, so I welcome BA’s new route.

    • Andrew Halket says:

      Lots of ski airports have issues. Innsbruck can get very busy… the business lounge often has a wait list (and the food is rubbish)

      Geneva was the worst airport I’ve been to for skiing. Maybe it’s better now but a secondary building is used for skiing with huge queues, then bussed to the main terminal to then go to a gate there.

      • jj says:

        You’re right about Innsbruck and Geneva, too. The trick for a civilised skiing holiday is to avoid the principal Alpine airports on a Saturday. Either use an airport that has substantial non-skiimg traffic (Venice or Milan Linate are good examples), or do your transfers on a different day.

        Linate is extremely civilised even on a February Saturday; Milan Bergamo, much less so.

  • ukpolak says:

    I used to fly out of here during a year abroad of studies and interesting reading that it looks like nothing has changed since 2005!! The good old days of Fly MayBe.

    I used to have to take a train and then taxi to the airport (IIRC station not close to airport) and considered myself lucky if the SNCF and French ATC were not on strike.

    There were soon cool albeit faded Olympic rings painted on the taxiway and the approach over the lake was lovely.

  • Richie says:

    The Sunday morning flights have replaced STN-AMS-LCY.

  • travelmonkey says:

    This isn’t a 100% new route. Although I don’t know when it stopped, I definitely flew STN-CMF on city flyer in January 2017 and both outbound and inbound were on Saturday too!

    Totally agree with CMF being about the worst airport I’ve ever used and I’m happy not to repeat a journey through there. I’ve used GVA a lot for skiing and it’s an improvement on CMF but both baggage reclaim and check-in are weak points. I most recently used the Lufthansa express bus as part of a connecting itinerary LHR-MUC-INN and that was a surprisingly good experience all round.

  • ADS says:

    on Saturdays BA fly CMF to LGW (10:50), LCY (11:30) and STN (15:50)
    and on Sunday BA fly CMF to LCY (12:10 & 18:00)

  • The real Swiss Tony says:

    You read these reports of small airports serving the mountains and their already hellish conditions – then think about the new border controls that are coming in from October.

    Does make me wonder if 2026 is the season I hang up my ski boots.

    Last time I flew into SZG on a Saturday at the start of half term, we joined the immigration queue just on the tarmac and it took an hour to get through.

  • mortsmusic says:

    Agree with all of the comments, basically, and just to add another option into the mix, flew in and out of Turin this year for one trip, and I’d highly recommend thinking about that. Easy transfer if you’re okay hiring a car (not so easy if not) and all of the upsides of using an efficient but not ski-focused airport. Plus if you want to stay for a night somewhere absolutely stunning, Turin is a fantastic, very beautiful city!

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