Sion LSGS: the only alpine airport where the aircraft can stay

The advantage no other alpine airport offers

In winter, in the Alps, parking is the scarce resource. Chambéry has around thirty stands and no hangar. Samedan fills at Christmas, New Year and White Turf weekends, and gives you only the first two hours. Geneva rations hangar space in the peak. Sion does not: it applies no parking limits, and the aircraft can stay, hangar included. For anyone spending a week in the Valais this changes the economics of the trip, because it avoids repositioning the aircraft and its crew empty to a distant airport and bringing them back.

The aerodrome qualification: what it means in practice

Sion sits at the bottom of the Rhône valley and landing there requires a specific crew approval. Type A is the more common: daytime only, at least 8 kilometres of visibility and a 6,500-foot ceiling, and no descent below 8,000 feet of decision or minimum descent altitude. Type B includes formal training with approved instructors and opens night operations too. The operational consequence is that the list of aircraft available at Sion on a given date is much shorter than at Geneva. If someone proposes Sion without mentioning the qualification, ask for written confirmation: it is the check that separates a quote from a problem.

Runway, hours and handling

The runway is 07/25, with 2,000 metres of take-off run available; landing distance is 1,935 metres on 07 and 1,940 on 25. From October to March the airport opens at 07:00 UTC and closes at daylight limits, in any case no later than 19:00 UTC; from April to September it opens at 05:00 UTC. Outside those hours a special authorisation is required. Every aircraft above 3 tonnes must have a handling agent: the airport itself, Signature Flight Support and Alpine Jet Services all operate there. A flight plan, or at minimum a flight notification, is mandatory before every movement.

The Föhn, the gliders and the military

Three elements condition operations at Sion and no destination page writes them down. Above flight level 130 there is a military area. From March to October the valley is worked by gliders. And above all there is the Föhn from the east, the warm wind coming down off the Alps, which when it blows makes Sion unusable. Anyone quoting a flight to Sion without naming the alternate is selling a probability, not a plan. We always name the alternate, normally Geneva, and we say up front what it costs in time and money if you end up there.

How we work

Alpine Private Jet works with Air-Dynamic, a Swiss company that arranges charter flights and operates helicopter and air ambulance directly. At Sion the first check is the crew qualification, the second is the weather with its alternate, the third is the price. In that order. The intermediation fee is written into the quote. Quote in 1 minute.