Jan. 2, 2025
Airport transfers are a necessary evil. Corporate ski trips are prime event formats due to their distinct surroundings, but aircraft of a certain size have trouble squeezing into mountain landing strips. Touching down further from the ski resort means longer airport transfers. Longer ski resort transfers are more expensive and tiring, and they eat into the limited time allocated for a short ski break.
Descend into Innsbruck airport on a clear day, and skiers and snowboarders will be visible on the peaks beyond the wingtips. From the slopes of the Innsbruck ski region, British Airways and easyJet planes can be seen touching down on the runway in the valley below. Innsbruck is an airport that offers truly thrilling approaches between the northern and southern ranges in the Alps. Peaks tower above the airport, and there are ski lifts some 5 miles from the arrivals hall, as well as glacier skiing, which is around 35 minutes away by road. Three miles from the airport are the reception desks of some of Innsbruck’s finest central hotels, the shops and bars of Innsbruck Old Town, and the entertainment of the famous Maria-Theresien Strasse.
As well as the local ski areas, St Anton is around an hour away. Coaches and taxis leave the airport and in less than 2 miles, the autobahn speeds toward resorts such as Sölden, and Ischgl, and onto the world-famous St Anton. In the opposite direction lies Mayrhofen, an hour away and Kitzbühel, just 75 minutes from Innsbruck airport. This airport has some of the biggest names in world-skiing on its doorstep.
Road distances are one thing. Getting everyone through an airport and onto a coach is a completely separate challenge. But not all airports are equal. There are 150m, maybe 200m, between the airline steps and the taxi rank at Innsbruck airport. There isn’t a moving walkway in the entire airport - this is an airport designed to get passengers from A to B with the bare minimum distance required. No changing terminals, no searching for taxi or coach bays, no snaking duty-free walks – planes land metres from passport control, baggage collection is 5 metres further and then 10 metres beyond that are the lines of coaches and drivers.
Any passenger suffering mid-February Geneva Airport PTSD should cure themselves with a transit of Innsbruck airport.