Stranded in Chambery

A Crystal holiday flight from Chambery was delayed by 36 hours due to a combination of bad weather and problem with the plane after the steps hit the door. 147 passengers were left stranded in Chambery airport.
http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/my-family-are-all-sick-after-ski-trip-horror-reveals-woman-after-sleeping-on-airport-floor-30877004.html

Having experienced short delays in Chambery, I can only imagine how horrible an experience this was. At the best of times, the airport struggles with the volume of passengers on transfer day. On bad days, it is simply overwhelmed and the airport does little to manage the situation. The bar/restaurant is too small for the crowds and quickly runs out of food. It also tends to stick to its normal operation hours, no matter how many people are around looking for service :twisted:

I've experienced a longish delay at a fogged in Chambery, not one of my better ski memories. A 9am departure turned into a 11.45pm departure from Grenoble.
Surely if the aircraft is faulty the airline would have put them in a hotel?

Ouch, not much sympathy being expressed in the comments after that article. :shock:

On a global level things certainly get much much much worse than a night in Chambery airport. But on a 'holiday level', my recollection is that Chambery is best described as a cattle-market for Charter flights to be churned through - not an ideal place to get stuck and best avoided altogether if possible.

We live our lives on many different levels.

andyhull wrote:I've experienced a longish delay at a fogged in Chambery, not one of my better ski memories. A 9am departure turned into a 11.45pm departure from Grenoble.
Surely if the aircraft is faulty the airline would have put them in a hotel?

The Article indicates that the tour operator claimed that there was no hotel accommodation available locally and could not get them back up to resort because of the snow :!:

While I know the TOs scrimp on all costs, it still amazes me that they accept the crappy service provided by Chambery. It is a small regional airport completely unsuited for the huge numbers that go through it every Saturday for the ski season :evil:

It's cheap that's why they accept it. For a bigger airport you need to pay and TO's no matter what they say are there for own profits, not your comfort.

I seem to recall that flying to Chambery was often an optional extra, often with a reduced luggage capacity, as it meant a quicker transfer to resort. Don't know if things have changed in recent years though.

Chambery can be ideal and quick to reach many resorts that have longish transfers from Geneva, lyon or even Grenoble. Many people specifically choose Chambery because of this reason, some TO's only pick charter flights into there because of cost and cheaper bus pick ups. This can backfire in bad weather (and lets face it this is highly likely during a winter ski season) so I guess you have to put up with it or choose alternative flights.
Geneva can be a pain but it rarely closes, Lyon the same but has longer transfers than most.
Grenoble is a big improvement on 5 years ago but Chambery is not a place I would want to get stuck.
Last time I flew in Chambery, we had to fly out of Grenoble due to the weather. Luckily the TO planned this the night before so we were picked up earlier and flew out of Grenoble with absolutely no problems or major delays, whereas Chambery was closed for 3 days. I guess you get lucky sometimes.