These will be the first international scheduled flights from London Oxford Airport and they will operate weekly on Saturdays from 19 December 2009 using ultra-modern and highly fuel-efficient Bombardier Q400 aircraft, with seat only prices from just £89 one way, inclusive of all departure charges and taxes. Baboo operates a ‘full frills’ service and flight prices include a generous baggage and complimentary ski or snowboard allowance. There doesn’t seem to be any suggestion that Erna Low will be selling them exclusively so we assume you will also be able to buy the flights direct from Fly Baboo too.

Saturday flight schedules (all times are local):
Depart Geneva 12:20 Arrive Oxford 13:20
Depart Oxford 14:05 Arrive Geneva 17:00

A free launch party on Thursday 26th November at The Vitesse Lounge of London Oxford Airport will take place from 6.30pm until 9pm and is open to all interested parties who wish to attend. Fabulous prizes including 2 return flights Oxford-Geneva, a week’s accommodation in the Alps, a pair of specially fitted ski Daleboots, a custom ski boot fitting (courtesy of Outdoor Traders, Abingdon) and many more prizes to be won.

Joanna Yellowlees-Bound, CEO of Erna Low, says ‘As a keen skier residing in Oxford, I couldn’t have wished for better news this season! The new route will make travelling to the Alps so much more convenient thanks to this new service. With the extensive Erna Low portfolio of residences available to book on an ‘accommodation-only’ package, it is an intelligent move to partner with this first class alpine ski carrier, Baboo.’

London Oxford Airport Managing Director, Steve Jones said: “We are delighted to introduce Geneva as our first international scheduled service and see this as a major turning point in the future of the Airport – we are a niche facility bringing bespoke destinations within a stone’s throw of the Oxford and Thames Valley market. Baboo is a highly regarded Swiss regional carrier, their Q400 fleet is perfectly suited to niche markets like ours and we look forward to a long and fruitful relationship with the airline.”

Baboo CEO, Jacques Bankir, said: “Baboo is excited to be the first international airline to serve Oxford. Baboo is a Geneva-based niche carrier with an excellent reputation for service to exclusive destinations such as St Tropez, Biarritz or Venice.

From the end of October, it also launches a twice-daily prime time schedule between London City and Geneva. With the addition of the Oxford service on Saturdays, smart skiers will be able to reach the numerous Swiss and French resorts that are so easily accessible by train, bus or car direct from Geneva airport: Verbier, Crans-Montana, Zermatt, Chamonix, Flaine, Morzine and Mégève to name but a few.”

Swiss Airlines will be further expanding its range of services between Geneva and London on 10 January 2010. An additional aircraft will be stationed in Geneva to operate the new flights. Swiss and its sister Lufthansa Group airline British Midland (bmi) also plan to collaborate more closely on their services between Switzerland and the UK.   

Swiss is steadily expanding its services to and from Geneva, despite the continuing economic crisis. From 10 January 2010 onwards, Swiss will offer six new daily services between Geneva and London Heathrow. Together with a modified service of four daily flights to London City (compared to the present six), Swiss will be doubling the number of seats it offers to and from the important London market, and further strengthening its position at and around Geneva.       

“No other airline offers a more attractive range of services to London’s biggest and most central airports,” says Swiss CEO Harry Hohmeister, commenting on the expansion. “And it’s our business success in Geneva that’s enabling us to further expand our network and take active advantage of the market opportunities here.”  

The new services between Geneva and London Heathrow will be operated by two aircraft of the Airbus A320 family. In an initial phase, one of these will be provided by bmi, Swiss’s new sister airline within the Lufthansa Group. Later, however, Swiss will operate all these London Heathrow services with its own equipment. A further Swiss Airbus A320 will be stationed in Geneva for this purpose.

Swiss’s present four-times-weekly service between Geneva and Bucharest is to be withdrawn owing to insufficient market demand. Customers from the Geneva region can continue to travel to and from Romania, however, via a daily Zurich connection.     

The planned collaboration with bmi will not be limited to the Geneva-London Heathrow route, either, but should be extended to all flights between Switzerland and the UK: in future, every one of the more than 430 weekly Swiss Airlines services between the two countries should be operated together with bmi under codeshare arrangements.

Book your flights from London to Geneva with Swiss Airlines here.

The flights are running weekly on Saturdays from the middle of December to around Easter (depending on popularity they may run later). The times are as follows:

Oxford to Geneva leaving at 14:05, arriving at 17:00.

Geneva to Oxford leaving at 12:20, arriving at 13:20.

The flights are currently on sale for £90 each way including all the taxes.

They are also offering free ski or snowboard allowance, free wine and canapes for the duration of the flight and generous baggage allowance. We’re liking the idea of free wine (wonder if there’s a limit) and canapes! Plus you only need to turn up 1 hour in advance.

The great thing about travelling from Oxford is that it’s a small airport, so it’s a no hassle option. There’s parking onsite at around £20 a week, you can literally park, walk a couple of hundred metres and be on the plane, all within an hour!

Lets just hope they get the numbers so they can continue the flights, although being an Oxford local, I know plenty of people that will take this option rather than the hike over to a no frills base!

To book visit www.flybaboo.com.

Oxford Airport suggest that if the routes are popular enough they may run through to Easter.

The company operating the flight will be Baboo, who currently operate flights to and from Geneva from numerous European destinations, including London City.

The actual details of the flights including prices will be published on Baboo’s website www.flybaboo.com in the near future, we’ll keep you updated. If they are similarly priced to the London to Geneva flights then we could be looking at less than £100 return which would be excellent.

Obvious benefits for flying from Oxford to Geneva are there for those living in and around the Oxford area, however those living further afield could also benefit. Parking for a week is only £25, there will be free ski and snowboard carriage, and baggage allowance will be generous.

Baboo is a small company and say they pride themselves in their customer service, they claim to treat all their clients as VIPs in an understated way. Something that some of the other airlines (we won’t name name’s) fail on massively.

Ryanair fly to Cuneo, Grenoble, Lourdes, Salzburg and Turin. Visit http://www.ryanair.com to book your ski flights now.

The flights are twice a week on a Saturday and Sunday. The Swiss Air flight to Geneva will depart Manchester on a Saturday at 17:15, the Sunday flight leaves at 10:00.

The best thing about travelling with Swiss is that each passenger can take 1 pair of skis for free unlike many other airlines.

Ski resorts within 1 hour transfer of Geneva airport include La Clusaz, Le Grand Bornand, Chinaillon, Flaine and the other Portes du Soleil resorts and Chamonix.

Swiss also flies out of London Heathrow to Geneva and to Zurich.

Book your Swiss Air flights now.

Swiss Airlines are also running a competition for one lucky person to win two flights from Manchester Airport. Win flights from Manchester with Swiss here.

Lesley Kane, head of sales and marketing at Ryanair, said: “To celebrate these new routes and our increased winter schedule for Edinburgh, Ryanair is offering a million £4 seats for travel across Europe in late September, October and November.”

Personally I think that British Airways may have shot themselves in the foot here. One of the main reasons that passengers forked out the extra for BA over the budget airlines is because of the quality of service they offer. Last week they announced that they no longer would offer any food on short haul flights (apart from Breakfasts) and now larger items of luggage will be charged.

Plus, I think that British Airways should have looked at their competitors a bit more, Easyjet offer oversized baggage for £35 return and Ryanair charges £60 return, which is expensive, but still cheaper than BA.

This may be a reaction to the massive losses that BA had last year, but to continue operating they do need to make sure they don’t keep haemorraging customers by reducing the service levels they offer. Now if they bring their prices down accordingly there’s a different story (but pigs might and all…….!)