Courchevel Altiport (french: Altiport de Courchevel) is an

altiport An altiport is an aerodrome for small airplanes and helicopters, situated on or within mountainous terrain. The term is generally confined to describing small mountainous aerodromes in the French Alps.''Flying Magazine'', November 1975, page 5 Altip ...

serving

Courchevel Courchevel () is a French Alps ski resort. It is a part of Les Trois Vallées, the largest linked ski areas in the world. Courchevel also refers to the towns of Courchevel 1300 (Le Praz), Courchevel 1550, Courchevel 1650 (Moriond), and Cou ...

, a

ski resort A ski resort is a resort developed for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter sports. In Europe, most ski resorts are towns or villages in or adjacent to a ski area – a mountainous area with pistes (ski trails) and a ski lift system. In N ...

in the

French Alps The French Alps are the portions of the Alps mountain range that stand within France, located in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regions. While some of the ranges of the French Alps are entirely in France, others, such a ...

. The airfield has a very short

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt concrete, as ...

of only with a gradient of 18.6%.SIA AIP
PDF There is no

go-around In aviation, a go-around is an aborted landing of an aircraft that is on final approach or has already touched down. A go-around can either be initiated by the pilot flying or requested by air traffic control for various reasons, such as an uns ...

procedure for landings at Courchevel due to the surrounding mountainous terrain. The airfield primarily sees use by smaller

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air Aircraft, flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate Lift (force), lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the wing configuration, shape of ...

such as the

Cessna 208 Caravan The Cessna 208 Caravan is a utility aircraft produced by Cessna. The project was commenced on November 20, 1981, and the prototype first flew on December 9, 1982. The production model was certified by the FAA in October 1984 and its Cargo ...

, as well as

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

s. The runway has no

instrument approach procedure In aviation, an instrument approach or instrument approach procedure (IAP) is a series of predetermined maneuvers for the orderly transfer of an aircraft operating under instrument flight rules from the beginning of the initial approach to a land ...

or lighting aids, making landing in fog or low clouds unsafe and almost impossible. The airport is considered dangerous, as it features a difficult approach, an upward-sloping runway and

ski run A ''piste'' () is a marked ski run or path down a mountain for snow skiing, snowboarding, or other mountain sports. This European term is French

s in the adjacent area. The

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Dis ...

program ''Most Extreme Airports'' ranks it as the seventh most extreme airport in the world. left, Courchevel Altiport, 164x164px

Commercial service

In the 1980s,

Tyrolean Airways Tyrolean Airways, officially ''Tyrolean Airways Tiroler Luftfahrt GmbH'', was an Austrian regional airline based in Innsbruck with its hub at Vienna International Airport and its homebase at Innsbruck Airport. It was owned by the Lufthansa Group ...

served Courchevel using Dash-7

STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh conditio ...

aircraft capable of carrying 54 passengers. More recently, De Havilland Canada DHC-6

Twin Otter The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter is a Canadian STOL (Short Takeoff and Landing) utility aircraft developed by de Havilland Canada, which produced the aircraft from 1965 to 1988; Viking Air purchased the type certificate, then resta ...

s and DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprops have served the airport. According to their website, Alpine Airlines is currently the only company worldwide to offer commercial flights to Courchevel Altiport.

Statistics

References

External links

Photo of DHC-7 on runway
Airports in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Buildings and structures in Savoie Altiports {{France-airport-stub