Montréal is the only city in North America with a non-stop to the French Alps. Everyone else connects, and most connect through London — where the flight that lands and the flight that leaves are usually at different airports. Here is every London–Alps route on a ski Saturday, which airport is actually closest to your resort, and what the road costs from each.
Transatlantic flights go to Heathrow and very little else. Across the five North American cities with the most London traffic, Heathrow takes almost all of it:
| From | To Heathrow | To Gatwick |
|---|---|---|
| New York JFK | 25.3 a day | 0.7 a day |
| Chicago O’Hare | 10.4 a day | — |
| Toronto | 3.3 a day | 1.4 a day |
| Montréal | 3.1 a day | 0.6 a day |
| Vancouver | 2.9 a day | — |
Annual daily averages — transatlantic schedules barely move with the season, so a yearly figure is the honest one here. The Alpine table below is a single ski Saturday, for the opposite reason.
Flights to each Alpine airport on Saturday 13 February 2027, with the first and last departure of the day.
| London airport | Chambéry CMF | Grenoble GNB | Geneva GVA | Lyon LYS | Turin TRN | Milan MXP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow (LHR)Where almost every transatlantic flight lands. Also the one with no Chambéry and no Grenoble. | — | — | 1607:00–19:30 | 310:55–18:20 | — | 209:30–15:20 |
| Gatwick (LGW)The ski airport. The only one that reaches all six, and the only Heathrow alternative with a real transatlantic service of its own. | 209:25–12:35 | 506:25–15:35 | 1806:00–20:00 | 806:00–19:55 | 506:40–15:40 | 606:45–19:40 |
| Luton (LTN)Low-cost, and strong on Grenoble. No transatlantic arrivals worth planning around. | — | 406:00–13:30 | 1006:00–17:05 | 307:15–19:05 | 306:05–08:45 | 215:05–20:25 |
| Stansted (STN)Mostly the Italian Alps, plus a winter Grenoble and Chambéry service. | 210:35–16:45 | 306:50–16:00 | 308:30–17:25 | — | 307:25–18:50 | 406:25–18:10 |
| City (LCY)Tiny, central, and almost nothing in winter — but it does run a Chambéry service the annual figures hide entirely. | 207:15–07:40 | — | 207:00–12:20 | — | — | — |
Gatwick is the ski airport. It is the only one of the five that reaches all six Alpine airports. Heathrow, where you landed, has sixteen Geneva flights and three to Lyon — and nothing whatsoever to Chambéry or Grenoble.
Chambéry and Grenoble are the two closest airports to the resorts, and they are the two you cannot reach from Heathrow. That is the whole problem with connecting through London in one sentence.
Winter schedule, sampled from our own flight feed on 7 October 2026 for Saturday 13 February 2027, counting every departure over the full day. Airlines reissue schedules twice a year and the winter charters are the half that moves most — confirm your own date with the airline before you book.
Road times are traffic-aware figures for a Saturday lunchtime in February — peak transfer day, so the realistic worst case rather than an empty road. Prices are live from our own price table: per vehicle, door to door, not per person.
| Resort | Nearest airport | From Geneva | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courchevel | Chambéry 1h10 · from €231 | 2h10 from €287 | 60 min closer |
| Meribel / Les Allues | Chambéry 1h15 · from €273 | 2h15 from €265 | 60 min closer |
| Les Arcs / Bourg-saint-maurice | Chambéry 1h20 · from €240 | 2h20 from €281 | 60 min closer |
| Belle Plagne | Chambéry 1h10 · from €273 | 2h10 from €282 | 60 min closer |
| Les Menuires | Chambéry 1h25 · from €231 | 2h25 from €260 | 60 min closer |
| Val Thorens | Chambéry 1h35 · from €231 | 2h35 from €270 | 60 min closer |
| Tignes | Chambéry 1h55 · from €249 | 2h55 from €296 | 60 min closer |
| Val d'Isère | Chambéry 2h00 · from €294 | 3h00 from €323 | 60 min closer |
| Alpe d'Huez | Grenoble 1h55 · from €260 | 3h00 from €270 | 65 min closer |
| Les Deux Alpes | Grenoble 1h45 · from €275 | 2h55 from €418 | 70 min closer |
| Chamonix | Geneva 1h20 · from €215 | — | Geneva is the nearest |
Geneva has around twenty flights a day from London across four airports. Chambéry had two. If you land late, or your connection is tight, the flight you can actually get beats the hour you might save on the road — and Geneva is the only sensible choice for Chamonix in any case.
But if you are choosing with a free hand, and your resort is in the Tarentaise, Chambéry turns a long afternoon drive into a short one. It is worth crossing London for.
Heathrow to Gatwick is not a connection. It is a separate journey across a large city, comfortably over an hour, and on top of it you collect your bags, check in again and clear security a second time. The same is true of Heathrow to Luton or Stansted.
The part that catches people is the ticketing. If the two flights are on one ticket, a delay is the airline's problem and it will rebook you. If you bought them separately — which is almost always the case when the second one is a low-cost flight from a different airport — then a late arrival is entirely yours. Nobody owes you the missed flight, and nobody owes you the night.
Leave far more time than feels necessary, and if the only workable connection is a tight same-day one, a night near the airport is usually the cheaper mistake.
Give us the flight number of the leg that arrives at the Alpine airport — not the transatlantic one. That is the flight your driver is waiting for. We track it, so a delay moves your pickup rather than losing it, and your driver waits up to 70 minutes after you land at no charge.
If you miss your connection in London and end up on a later flight, tell us the new number and the pickup follows. A missed connection is the commonest way a transfer goes wrong, and it is the whole reason we ask for a flight number in the first place.
Gatwick, if you have the choice. On saturday 13 february 2027 it ran flights to all six Alpine airports — Geneva, Lyon, Grenoble, Chambéry, Turin and Milan — which no other London airport does. Heathrow has far more Geneva flights (16 that day) but nothing at all to Chambéry or Grenoble, which are the two closest airports to the ski resorts. Luton is strong on Grenoble, Stansted mostly serves the Italian side.
To Geneva, easily — around sixteen flights on a ski Saturday — and to Lyon, with about three. Not to Chambéry or Grenoble: neither is served from Heathrow. If you want the airport closest to your resort you have to cross London to Gatwick, Luton, Stansted or City, and that is a separate journey of well over an hour, usually on a separate ticket.
Because they are winter-only. Averaged across a year both round to roughly zero flights a day and disappear from the route maps most booking sites build from. They reappear for the ski season. If you are planning in August, look at dates in the season rather than at what flies today — the two airports nearest the resorts are exactly the two that are invisible the rest of the year.
If both flights use the same airport and the same ticket, the airline's own minimum connection time applies and you are its problem if you miss it. If you have to change airports — Heathrow to Gatwick, say — treat it as a separate journey: collect your bags, cross London, check in again. On separate tickets nobody owes you anything if the first flight runs late, so leave far more time than feels necessary, and prefer an overnight in London to a tight same-day change.
For the Tarentaise — Courchevel, Méribel, Les Arcs, La Plagne, Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Tignes — Chambéry is roughly an hour closer by road. Courchevel is the clearest case: 1h10 from Chambéry against 2h10 from Geneva. Against that, Geneva has around twenty flights a day from London and Chambéry had two. The honest answer is that Geneva usually wins on flights and Chambéry on road time, and which matters depends on how late you land.
Give us the flight number of the leg that LANDS in the Alps, not the transatlantic one, and we track it. If you end up on a later flight, tell us and the pickup moves with you; your driver waits up to 70 minutes after you land at no charge. A missed connection is the single most common reason a transfer goes wrong, and it is the reason we ask for a flight number at all.
Usually yes, if you connect in the morning. The Alpine flights start at 06:00 and the last useful ones leave London around 17:00 to 20:00 — but a 20:00 departure puts you in resort near midnight. Work backwards from the drive: Courchevel is about 1h10 from Chambéry and 2h10 from Geneva, Val Thorens 1h35 and 2h35. An evening landing is a night in the valley, not a night in the resort.
About a minute, and you will see the private and the shared price side by side.
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