A chairlift after fresh snow

Airports and valleys

Getting to the French Alps

Airports and valleys for the French Alps and the 2030 clusters: Geneva, Lyon, Chambéry, Grenoble, Turin, and Amsterdam for Thialf.

A chairlift after fresh snow. Photo: Rob Bye, CC0 1.0.

On this page
  1. Airports that match a cluster
  2. The road people mean by “the A43”
  3. During the Games

Pick the airport for the valley, not for “the Alps” as a blob. Then check the road or the train on the week you travel. Times move with snow, and this page does not pretend to be a live traffic report.

Airports that match a cluster

Geneva (GVA) is the usual door for Haute-Savoie and for Chamonix, and it is a common start for the Tarentaise as well. Lyon Saint-Exupéry (LYS) is the door for the Lyon ice halls, and a workable start for Savoie if you accept the extra road. Chambéry Savoie (CMF) is the closest commercial airport to the Tarentaise when the winter flights are running. Grenoble (GNB) is the nearer airport for Les Deux Alpes and the Oisans. Turin (TRN) is the nearer large airport for Montgenèvre and Briançon. Amsterdam, then a train to Heerenveen, is the door for Thialf. None of these airports is a high-altitude airfield. An old post on this site called them that. It was wrong, and it has been retired.

The road people mean by “the A43”

The A43 leaves Lyon toward Chambéry and the Maurienne. For Courchevel, Méribel, Val Thorens, and La Plagne you leave that axis toward Albertville and the Tarentaise, through Moûtiers. Val d’Isère and Tignes are further, up to Bourg-Saint-Maurice and beyond. That corridor does not continue to a Mediterranean ice cluster. Nice is not on the 2030 map.

Trains reach Chambéry, Annecy, Grenoble, and, in season, Moûtiers and Bourg-Saint-Maurice. Whether a direct London service is running in a given winter is a question for SNCF and Eurostar that week, not a promise from this page.

During the Games

Competition venues close to ordinary skiers while they are in use. The resort next door often stays open. Build the transfer as its own day. A morning session in Chassieu and an afternoon slalom in Val d’Isère is not a plan.

Questions

Which airport for Courchevel?

Chambéry is the nearest seasonal airport. Geneva and Lyon are the reliable year-round ones. The last hour is the valley road through Albertville and Moûtiers, not the airport.

Does the A43 go to the ice rinks in Nice?

No. There is no Nice ice cluster. The A43 runs from Lyon toward Chambéry and the Maurienne. Lyon’s own ice halls are in the city, not at the end of that motorway.

Sources

Checked 15 November 2026. If a later organising-committee page disagrees with this one, believe the later page.