What's New in Meribel?

bmi will operate the new Swiss flights from Geneva to Heathrow from 10 January 2010

The ways and means of getting from the rainy old UK to the big, white fluffy snow in the Alps continue to increase, with annoucements made by two airlines this week both launching new scheduled services this winter.

First up is Snowjet who already operates ski flights during the winter season from London Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports to Chambery. The company has just announced that it will be operating twice-weekly return flights from London Stansted (STN) to Sion (SIR) airport in Switzerland.

The scheduled service, which is due to run from the 19th December 2009 to the 18 April 2010 inclusive, will offer one return flight each Saturday and Sunday. Leaving Stansted at 10:00 on Saturday and Sunday, arriving in Sion at 13:00 local time, before the return leg leaves Sion at 14:00, arriving back in Stansted at 15:00 local time.

If you've never heard of Sion, it's a town in the Valais region of Switzerland, literally just up the road from Verbier. Snowjet is the first airline to offer a scheduled service into the airport from London and it will mean drastically reduced transfer times for those heading to the likes of Verbier and other Swiss ski resorts. Even those wanting to head to Chamonix could consider these flights, as the French alpine town is just 1.5hrs away from Sion over the cols de Forclaz and Montets.

The airline has also announced weekly codeshare flights with ThomsonFly from London Gatwick to Geneva. These will leave LGW at 08:05 and the return leg leaves GVA at 12:10 each Saturday between the 19th December 2009 and 10th April 2010.

Switzerland's flag carrier airline Swiss, has announced that it is to re-introduce flights between Geneva and London Heathrow as of 10th January 2010. Initially the flights will be operated by an Airbus A320 from sister airline bmi as part of Lufthansa group and the Star Alliance and will fly into Heathrow terminal 1.

Swiss flights from Geneva to London City airport will be reduced from six return flights a day to four as a result of the new route.

For more info see www.swiss.com and www.snowjet.co.uk websites