The Saturday of the Offloaded Skis.

A snowHead

We flew to Salzburg from Edinburgh on Saturday 18th January with Jet2. All perfect, even arrived 25 mins early.

The same afternoon friends also flew from Edinburgh to Innsbruck with TUiFly as part of the Crystal charter flight albeit they personally were flight and transfer only. They left Innsbruck airport more than 2 hours late as all the skis that had been loaded in Edinburgh were apparently then unloaded as before departure, as, so they were told "the plane was too heavy"

Now in isolation you might think that someone had made an error in paperwork or such or that it was just one of these things that happens.

The thing is that the delay was made worse by the fact that the exact same thing had happened to two other TuiFly flights to Innsbruck on the same afternoon from Gatwick and Dublin.

Thus the delay was worse as lost luggage at Innsbruck had three planeloads of folks all arriving at the same approximate time all of whom didn't have the skis they had checked in successfully upon departure. Their skis didn't reach them until at the earliest on the Tuesday night. So that was at least three days on rentals at best.

I had a search but can't see any other posts about this episode so was anyone on here affected?

Very odd methinks. What would cause that?

Not the same issue but they also found out that the Manchester TuiFly flight due in at the same approximate time was diverted to Salzburg because of weather. Someone in their hotel had been on it and didn't get to Obergurgl until 4am on the Sunday. Nine hours after landing for a journey of 275km?

One of these days or problems at Crystal/TuiFly?

A snowHead

If the weather/runway conditions forecast at Innsbruck were bad, then it can really restrict the available landing weight, when the pilots plan what fuel they can carry before the flight (the passengers would of all been checked in by then)

Skis are the first victim of off-loading baggage to reduce the weight of the airplane. It’s all part of the charm flying into Innsbruck snowHead

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I was at Salzburg airport that day picking up my sister. It was snowing pretty heavily which can affect flights in and out of Innsbruck, but less so at Salzburg, so I expect it's all weather-related.

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Some Austrian air flights got diverted to Munich that Saturday
There was a fair bit of snow in Innsbruck
We were held up coming home but that was due to a plane change

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Ok. It was pouring rain in Salzburg at 6pm, in fact there was no lying snow until almost Lofer in that direction although apparently it was snowing above Innsbruck but not at town level. So there were weather issues.

I'll ask no1 son who's an aeronautical engineering student for a technical explanation. I would have thought from a laymans logic POV that as far as landing is concerned a heavier plane is better than a lighter one but maybe its to do with the risk of icing making it too heavy?

As you say likely just one of the charms of Innsbruck. I've always been lucky there in terms of weather but thinking my luck will run out eventually. Planning there next trip and wondering weather just to fly via London and use a scheduled flight? IIRC there is a higher level of pilot qualification required for those but please correct me if I'm wrong about that?

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@robboj, a heavier plane has more momentum, and with reduced brake efficiency in wet or snowy weather the plane might not manage to stop before the end of the runway, in which case they'll deliver you a bit closer to the centre of Innsbruck than planned, or a bit further away. Removing an A320 or 737 from the grass/mud/fence beyond the runway is expensive and takes several hours, and would close the airport to incoming flights

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@robboj, I'm pretty sure it was snowing in the town that Saturday – it was the first snow we'd had in about a month. I wasn't taking much notice of the planes coming in though, only that there were some.

Afaik, it is the airport which defines whether the higher qualification is required, not the service, so all commercial pilots coming into Innsbruck mush have it. Happy to be corrected though.

Planes fly past my window approximately four minutes before landing, so I can see roughly how busy the airport is. The normal rate on a normal day is one plane (medium or small passenger plane, nothing huge) every 30 min. On a Saturday in February, this increases to one every five minutes, so potentially quite a lot of disruption if you're caught up in one of those holiday flights (approx. half are charters) due to bad weather. Innsbruck is tiny, so I can see how it would become a bottleneck if there are delays.

Most of the time, the weather is ok, and everything runs like clockwork. If you are really worried, then consider Munich as an alternative – no special pilot training required, not in the mountains so less likely to be affected by weather, much larger so able to absorb delays without too much hassle. Transfer time would probably increase, but there is a good train line and you can take a more direct route to some resorts without going near Innsbruck itself.

After all it is free

@ousekjarr, Planes land facing away from the city, and are more likely to end up on the A12 or fished out of the river Shocked

Salzburg has special pilot training requirements too. The airport is pretty central in the city which sits in a horseshoe arrangement of mountains. Generally planes take off/land to/from the northwest as that's where the flatter land lies, but I have once been in an A319 which took off southeast to Dubrovnik. Apparently it has to be a pretty small plane and less than half-laden. Spectacular take-off, very sharp angle, bumpy but with great views.

Surprisingly Salzburg airport isn't too badly affected by weather, they are very good at keeping the runway clear and it's only Saturdays in the peak ski season that are especially busy. Last year in the height of the major snowfall a few charter flights were diverted to Linz to allow more time for runway clearance at Salzburg.

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@Scarlet, Innsbruck has one strip of tarmac, which consists of two runways - 26 and 08. These refer to the direction of the runway (260 degrees and 080 degrees), and while there are restrictions on takeoff to the west because of the proximity of large lumps of snow-covered rock, landing is perfectly possible in both directions. I've come in over the mountains before (that's a hell of a ride) and then dropped into the valley and landed eastbound towards the city.

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Personally, we only use MUC (Lufthansa) and ZRH (Swiss), longer and more expensive transfers but you don't get held up by weather and diverted/ luggage delays etc. Some friends last year paid a premium to Tui to fly into INN and got diverted to Friedrichshafen and got to resort without luggage at 4am, not great that....missed a days skiing in the process waiting for skis/ bags to arrive. Never easy in bad weather but going via a major hub and on trains minimise potential disruption imo.

I've not yet found a service from the north of UK that flies into INN that guarantees me any extra time on the slopes at anything like sensible price, they generally fly in/ out at mid morning plus are expensive, Monarch came close but they went bust.

You know it makes sense.

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A snowHead

A snowHead

@ousekjarr, You're getting a bit too geeky for me now! My observations are based on being perpetually injured and not allowed out at the weekend to play in the snow Confused

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

A group of us flew into Innsbruck on 18th, on 4 different flights, none made it to Innsbruck as expected due to snow/visibility;

1. flight I was on ended up in Munich and arrived only 30 mins later than expected in Innsbruck, having unsuccessfully tried to land twice at Innsbruck. That in itself was not an issue, except it took over 2 hours for the bags to arrive, but let’s be grateful all skis and bags did.

2. Tui flight ended up at Munich for a few hours on the tarmac then went back successfully to Innsbruck.

3. Tui flight diverted to Verona, over 3 hours on tarmac with no food or drink, then flew back to Innsbruck

4. Tui flight later in day due to leave 1pm, left after 7pm, friend got to resort at 3am, clearly caused by all earlier issues

Not ideal, we laughed about it and had 2 foot of powder to ski on first day which made it all the more bearable

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Thanks to those who posted a fuller explanation. 'O' Grade physics was a long time ago now.

It certainly reinforces my view that I have been anomalously lucky to have had no issues in about twelve flights there.

Injury has curtailed a likely trip to Obergurgl via there later this month but seriously thinking that next year will be via MUC and a shared taxi. Yes its notably more expensive but I would rather pay for the certainty of having my own kit. Will look into trains too but with a change at München Ost then the need to change again to the bus at the Ötztal Bahnhof makes it all seem a bit tiresome. Will come down to the difference in price.

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One more thing. I am certain I have read here or somewhere that Austrian Airlines are able to get in there when others can't. I appreciate my notion that it was down to pilot qualification was poo-poo'd above so apologies for my asking again but are we certain about that in the particular respect of AA?

There is an AA charter out of Edinburgh through Inghams which I've never used primarily because the return flight is one of those that necessitates leaving the hotel at about 3am but its another option when weighing them up?

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@robboj, it's more likely due to the size of the plane. AA have a few smaller planes in their fleet, such as A319 and Embraer 195.

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The Saturday of the Offloaded Skis.

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