Full weekend at Geneva airport. With more than 200,000 passengers between Friday and Sunday, “it’s the big weekend of the year,” said Sandy Bouchat, spokesperson for the airport platform. And, with 74,600 travelers expected, this Saturday was “the busiest day”.
Indeed, between departures and arrivals, “we are in a turning point between the two weeks of vacation,” explains the head of the communications department. With the charter season, a large number of Britons pass through the end of the lake to go to the Alps, she continues. “We also have a lot of Swiss travelers who fly to hubs like Amsterdam, Paris, or Zurich, but that is not their final destination.”
Faced with this peak in attendance, staff have been provisioned, in particular to guide travelers through the terminal. Although it was relatively easy to walk the different paths, the unpleasant surprise came from the weather. Indeed, due to fog in the Nordic countries, but also in Geneva, numerous delays were to be deplored, with a high risk of cancellations. On the departures display board, a flight to Bournemouth, England, scheduled to depart at 8:20 a.m., was ultimately scheduled for 2:05 p.m., for example.
For many travelers, it was waiting or suspense. Tiphaine and Thierry, aged 30 and from Saône-et-Loire (F), had to wait. “We’re going to London and we had a little head start on the road. The plane is currently 2 hours 15 minutes late. It’s boring, we hope it won’t be canceled. We’re going to go have a coffee and kill some time.”
For their part, Katherine and David, a 29-year-old Australian couple who took a 4 to 5 week trip to Europe, were leaving after a ski trip to Chamonix (F). They had to fly to Istanbul to reach South Africa. “Our plane has to take off at 2:15 p.m., we’re crossing our fingers that it won’t be late.” Uncertainty also for Nathalia, Igor and their daughters Sofia and Catherina. After a week spent in Courchevel (F) skiing, the family took a flight to Zurich, from where they would then return to their home in Alicante, Spain. “The plane has to take off at 2:50 p.m., we don’t know if it’s late at the moment, because we arrived early.”
In the end, around 6 p.m., six departing and seven arriving flights had been canceled, almost all of them connecting with England, except for one plane coming from Amsterdam. The average delay during the morning for all flights was one hour, explains Sandy Bouchat. On Sunday, 64,500 passengers are expected.
New Nordic connections
For these Holidays, some new connections have been introduced. Two of them offer Nordic destinations. Tromso, Norway, nicknamed the “Paris of the North,” and Rovaniemi, Finland, the “City of Santa Claus.” Other new features, two connections for Egypt: Cairo-Giza and Marsa Alam, on the edge of the Red Sea. Finally, the connection to Mauritius has been extended.
