The flight LX 2605 was scheduled to leave on 17h45. I arrived much too early at the airport as I wanted to spot a few aircraft. First thing I noticed though was the cancellation of my flight. The flight was cancelled due to heavy winds (Föhn), and it was rather windy indeed – nevertheless it did not keep British European Airways (flybe) from performing their flight (BE2909). A so-called "groundtransport" to Zürich with a flight the following day was offered to me…as I was early enough I was still able to take a train via Lausanne – Neuchâtel – Olten (4,5 hours !) and catch the flight to Brussels LX770 I was scheduled to take.
The cancellation was all the more regrettable as I was hoping for a nice flight in business class (upgrade with some remaining miles).
A few words on Sion Airport
SIR/LSGS has two runways 07/25 one grass the other concrete 2000m.
www.sionairport.ch
The airport co-hosts the Swiss Air Force (LSMS).
There are only the following seasonal scheduled flights in winter this year:
- LGW-SIR-LGW by British European Airways (BAe 146-300)
- ZRH-SIR-LHR-SIR-ZRH by swiss (Avro RJ100)
and very recently
- PRG-SIR-PRG operated by Flightline on behalf of ‘Discovery’ (?)
Air Glaciers claims also to perform some scheduled flights.
Quite a large and oversized terminal building (for the few flights). There is kiosk with amazingly many aircraft magazines. A rather large restaurant with terrace with a view onto the runway (especially nice in summer).
In summer there are quite some movements from the Swiss Air Force
A lot of helicopter traffic and general aviation, also quite some VIP (Crans Montana, Verbier, Zermatt …)
ZRH-BRU – 21FEB04 - LX770 – Avro RJ100 - HB-IYZ
The flight (this time I sat in business class) was fine the aircraft was rather empty – only 20% full. I was the only C-class passenger. Inflight service was fine and friendly. The flight rather uneventful with arrival on time.
BRU-ZRH – 28FEB04 – LX771 – Airbus 320 – HB-IJI
After the chaos of Friday morning due to the 15 cm of fresh snow in Brussels, I feared the worst for my flight on Saturday (they announced the same weather again!)…but I was lucky it only started snowing when we boarded the aircraft. We had to wait 1 hour on the aircraft, as it had to be de-iced before departing. We left eventually with one hour delay. Shortly after take-off the clouds vanished the ant weather was rather nice (snow almost all over Europe). Landing in Zürich on runway 34 (new approach due to difficulties with Germany over the approach over German territory – this causes a lot of delays in ZRH and a lot of anger in the population). Inflight service was fine – but as I flew economy this time one had to buy drinks/food (2,8 EUR for a cup of tea !). Loadfactor +/- 70%, I was lucky to have three seats for myself.
ZRH-SIR – 28FEB04 – LX2604 – Avro RJ100 – HB-IXN
The departure from Zürich was 45 mintues late (due to late arrival of connecting passengers). The aircraft was practically full, but again I had 3 seats for myself
! The weather was great a little bit of mist and rather cold (-9°C). A short flight (27 minutes) but very spectacular – especially the flight over the Alps and then the final approach which is in the Rhone valley (left and right you can see the ski resorts Chandolin, Vercorin, Crans Montana etc.) I think this was one of my most spectacular flights and I was largely recompensed for the cancelled flight a week earlier. All passengers (mostly Dutch and British) seemed quite excited by the beautiful scenery – and the view was indeed breathtaking. Landing was on runway 25. There was no other large aircraft there (so biz jets and general aviation).Amazingly enough there are no direct flight BRU-SIR, which I am sure could be immensely successful after all there are so many Belgians spending their holidays in the Valais (especially in winter)…something to be considered by tour operators, tourism promoters and airlines. An eternal car or train journey (up to 10 hrs!) could be reduced to a 1hrs 15 minutes flight with a bus to the ski resort (+/- 1 hours).
Air_Lac
