Departure
90%
vs 95% ▼ 5
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Courchevel Altiport is a small, high-altitude airfield serving the Courchevel ski resort in the French Alps, notorious among pilots for its extraordinarily short, steeply sloped runway and lack of any go-around option. Sitting at over 6,400 feet amid the peaks above Saint-Bon in Savoie, it has hosted scheduled STOL services, film crews and Tour de France finishes, and remains one of the most demanding fields a visiting pilot can attempt.
Courchevel Altiport is a single-runway mountain airfield built to serve the Courchevel ski resort in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of the French Alps. It is best known for its extremely short, steeply graded runway and for the complete absence of a go-around option once an approach is committed, characteristics that have made it a byword for challenging alpine flying and have drawn attention from pilots, filmmakers and the History Channel alike. Traffic today is dominated by light fixed-wing aircraft such as the Cessna 208 Caravan and Pilatus PC-12, together with helicopters, and since 2014 Alpine Airlines has been the sole operator of scheduled commercial flights into the field.
The altiport lies at Saint-Bon in the Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region of France, at coordinates 45.3958N, 6.6325E, immediately adjacent to the Courchevel ski resort and surrounded by mountainous terrain. The field sits at a published elevation of 6,476 feet, making it one of the highest paved airfields in Europe, and its position hemmed in by peaks and ski slopes is central to the difficulty of its approach and departure paths.
Courchevel has a single hard-surfaced runway aligned 04/22, measuring 1,787 feet in length. The runway is set on a pronounced upward gradient towards runway 22, a feature repeatedly cited as the defining characteristic of the field, and there is no instrument approach or approach lighting available.
No communications frequency is published for Courchevel Altiport. There is no instrument landing system and no other navigational aid serving the field, and the runway has no lighting aids, so operations are conducted visually in daylight and suitable weather only.
Approaches to Courchevel must be flown visually and committed to early, since there is no go-around procedure once established on final due to the surrounding terrain; pilots are advised never to attempt an approach with a tailwind. The runway's steep upward slope means aircraft must add power after touchdown simply to keep rolling toward the ramp, and departures use the same slope, downhill, to assist the take-off run. The combination of a short landing distance available, a demanding slope and terrain close to the approach and departure paths has been linked to a number of accidents and incidents at the field over the years.
The runway threshold area is marked by a cluster of chalets used by pilots and passengers, including a long-established restaurant built beside the strip by the airfield's original developer and his wife. The field's setting directly above the Courchevel resort, with ski runs immediately adjacent to the runway, makes the steep, upward-sloping strip itself the primary visual reference for pilots inbound to the field.
Courchevel Altiport was developed by Michel Ziegler in the early 1960s and opened in 1961 as the first mountain airport of its type; Ziegler and his wife Martine also ran a restaurant beside the runway that survives today as accommodation and dining for skiers. In the early 1970s Air Alpes operated scheduled flights between Paris Orly and Courchevel using de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL aircraft, diverting to Chambery with a bus transfer when weather closed the altiport, and maintained an office in the trackside restaurant. In the 1980s Tyrolean Airways served the field with 54-seat de Havilland Canada DHC-7 Dash 7 turboprops, and other Twin Otter and Dash 7 operators followed; since 2014 Alpine Airlines has been the only company offering scheduled commercial flights into Courchevel. The altiport has repeatedly served as a Tour de France stage finish, including in 1997, 2000, 2005 and 2023, and its steep runway featured as a filming location in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which the pre-credits sequence sees Bond escape by taking off along the sloped strip in a commandeered jet.
The altiport's facilities for aircraft include a ten-space hangar, a single fire truck, a tractor for towing and a refuelling station, with two small chalets available to pilots and passengers by the runway. The field continues to handle a mix of private and commercial traffic, principally light turboprops and business aircraft such as the Pilatus PC-12, together with helicopters supporting the resort, alongside the scheduled services operated by Alpine Airlines.
