Originally Posted by
commit aviation
CMF is notorious for weather issues. It's location in the mountains is as already stated advantageous for skiers but the approach and departure to the airport is complex and airlines require approved crews to operate it.
Because the weather minima are so high here, it does result in more than the average level of days where weather is below limits. I have a vague recollection that Jet2 pulled out of CMF due to the levels of weather disruption being experienced there.
Finally ROC10, don't take FR24 as gospel at CMF - it is frequently wrong. There are for example Titan operations I have noted going in and out which are not listed at all which may be additions or have replaced the listed TUI ops but not been updated.
Those Titan flights are for tour operators, Inghams, Esprit, Skitotal etc. and don’t appear on a FR24 expected arrivals and departures, as you say. It looks like the missing Tui flights were finally recovered by a Hi Fly A340 yesterday evening with the final flight getting back from Lyon just after 1am this morning. That must have been a painful delay for those involved at the end of their holiday, back just over a day late.
I’ve been in and out of Chambery many times over the years and have breezed through on some occasions (even with snow on the ground) and had relatively minor delays of a couple of hours on others. Arguably worst experience was a very turbulent departure last March.
When I have a choice I would always choose Geneva or Lyon when visiting the Alps and luckily I’m avoiding Chambery for both my trips to the Alps this year. I do however understand why the likes of Tui see it as a good option of a speedy entry to many of the main ski resorts, it’s just that when the combination of weather, geography and small airport infrastructure are mixed together it tends to go very wrong, very fast. That certainly looks to be what happened on Saturday!