Courmayeur: the airport is forty minutes away, and it is the most constrained in the Alps

Aosta: when it works and when it doesn't

The runway is 1,499 metres by 30, at 1,796 feet of elevation. But what decides the matter is not the length: at Aosta operations are visual only and in daylight only. There are no instrument approach procedures, the service is flight information and not a control tower, and the fire service is category two. The Region itself writes that commercial activity is limited by the availability of fire crew. Here there is an error going round half the internet that we do not repeat: Aosta has no ILS. Wikipedia and some industry databases still list one, but that is a historical figure: the aeronautical publication in force says the opposite. To write it would be serious, because a crew could plan on that assumption. So: light jets, in daylight, in visual conditions, subject to prior agreement with the airport operator for handling, fire cover and customs — which here is requested three hours in advance. With an evening flight, a low cloud base or a larger aircraft, the answer is a different one.

Turin, when you need an answer that doesn't change with the weather

Turin Caselle is a hundred and fifty-one kilometres away, less than two hours on the motorway, all of it in Italy and with no international tunnel in between. Runway of 3,300 metres by 60, CAT III ILS since January 2026, tower open twenty-four hours, a terminal dedicated to general aviation with four handlers, customs and prior permission of only two hours. It is the choice that holds up every time: at night, in fog, with a long range arriving from far away. When the client asks us for one answer valid for the whole season, that answer is Turin.

Geneva, and the tunnel that decides the journey

Geneva is a hundred and eight kilometres away: an hour and three quarters or a little more — if the Mont Blanc Tunnel is open. If it is shut you go round by the Gran San Bernardo and it becomes a hundred and seventy-eight kilometres, three hours or three and three quarters: an hour and a quarter more, on a transfer that had been quoted for a different duration. The state of play today, and it needs updating every season because it changes: in autumn 2026 there is no long closure, only weekday night closures, generally from twenty-two hundred to six, from September to December. The calendar is still under review by the Prefecture, so before confirming a night transfer we check it again. What comes after is less good, and we would rather say it now to anyone planning the winter after that: for autumn 2027 a new full closure of fifteen weeks is under study, and a further phase is already scheduled for 2028.

The last leg by helicopter: today we don't promise it

Until the beginning of 2026 Courmayeur had three helipads. Col Checrouit and Entrèves are recorded as discontinued since March 2026, both declared under the same measure. One is left, and its data is not publicly available. It means the helicopter down to the valley can still be done, but we do not write it into a quote before we have spoken to the operator of the landing site. It matters to us that the client knows exactly what service he is buying: a transfer that might not exist is not a transfer.

The road, and two details nobody mentions

In the Aosta Valley winter tyres or chains on board are compulsory from 15 October to 15 April: a month before the rest of Italy, and people do arrive unprepared in mid-October with the valley still green. The Colle del Piccolo San Bernardo, towards Savoy, is closed in winter: from November to May it is not an alternative, and it should not be offered as one.

The only one of the four with a real summer season

Courmayeur has two peaks, not one. There is winter, with Christmas, New Year and February. And there is the last week of August, with the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc: Courmayeur is the start venue for several races, and in those days the village, the hotels and the road are as full as at New Year. It also coincides with the busiest traffic weekends at the tunnel.

How we work

We ask for the date, how many of you there are, the luggage and the real time of arrival — because at Aosta the time changes the answer more than the number of passengers does. Then we say which airport holds up for that date and at that hour, and what happens if the tunnel shuts. The price of the aircraft is set by the operator; ours is an intermediation fee, and it is written into the quote.