Geneva to London Biggin Hill is 720 km and about 1 h 19 in the air. You leave from Terminal 3, the business aviation building two kilometres south-west of the main hall, with its own lounges and its own customs and immigration – which on a changeover Saturday in February is the whole difference between twenty minutes and two hours. Biggin Hill sets you down on the south-eastern rim of London rather than on the far side of it. We publish no price for this route and the reason is further down the page; a written quotation follows inside 30 minutes, and +357 95 119759 answers at any hour.
Out of the Alps and home in well under ninety minutes, without a scheduled terminal at either end. Tell us the party, the day and what is coming back with you – after a week in the mountains the luggage usually picks the aeroplane before the seating does.
REQUEST A QUOTEThe flying half of this sector asks nothing of anybody. Seven hundred and twenty kilometres is a short hop for every type we would put on it, the runway you are leaving is one of the longest in the Alps, and the arrival at the London end is a business-aviation field with no scheduled queue to join. What decides your morning is the ground at the Geneva end: which building you are processed in, and whether the aircraft coming to collect you had anywhere to stand the night before. In the ski weeks those two questions matter more than anything in the air.
One departure that is not really a choice, one arrival that is, and a building at the Geneva end that is worth more attention than either.
| Field | Code | Role on this route | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geneva | GVA / LSGG | departure | Where the sector starts and the field both figures on this page are measured from. A single runway, 04/22, of 3,900 m at 430 m elevation, which is to say no performance question of any kind for a business jet leaving for England. The airport sits on the border, and the building you are handled in is not the one the ski charters use. |
| Geneva Terminal 3 | — | the departure building | Private flights use a separate terminal two kilometres south-west of Terminal 1, with its own lounges, its own crew facilities and its own immigration and customs screening. You do not walk through the main hall on the way out. In the season the main terminal is among the busiest in Europe for its size, and on a changeover Saturday the two buildings are twenty minutes and two hours respectively. |
| London Biggin Hill | BQH / EGKB | arrival | The arrival this page is calculated to. It puts you on the south-eastern edge of London, which is the short drive for the City, Kent and Surrey and avoids crossing the capital with the bags still in the car. For most parties coming off an Alpine week that is worth more than the handful of minutes any other London field would save in the air. |
| Other London fields | — | alternative arrival | The same sector flown into the other London airports is published separately, with its own airport notes, as Geneva to London. Send the postcode you are actually going to rather than the airport name and we will tell you which of the two pages describes your trip. |
Runway, elevation and terminal facts are as published on our own London Biggin Hill to Geneva page. Handling arrangements and slot conditions move from season to season and we confirm them against your dates rather than against a general rule.
At 720 km off a 3,900 m runway nothing about this sector narrows the choice. The luggage does, and coming home from the mountains it always does.
Light jet with a hold that takes ski bags without an argument, and normally the quickest type to arrange at short notice when a week in the Alps ends a day early.
Embraer Phenom 300 ›Midsize, stand-up cabin, and the common answer for six to eight people with a full week of equipment behind them.
Cessna Citation XLS+ ›Super-midsize, for a larger party or for the day that starts early in the mountains and has somewhere else to be by the evening.
Bombardier Challenger 350 ›Cabin dimensions and range by type are on our own aircraft pages.
There is no figure on this page, in either direction, and it is a deliberate omission rather than an oversight.
We publish no price for this route. On a Geneva sector in winter a printed number would be the least honest thing on the page: the same 720 km behaves completely differently on a January Saturday and on a May Tuesday, because on the Saturday every suitable aeroplane in northern Europe is already committed and whatever is left has to be flown in to reach you.
Which is the item to ask about on a departure. Going north out of Geneva, the question is not the hourly rate but where the aircraft spent the previous night. One that is already on the ramp because it brought somebody in is a different quotation from one that has to position in empty – and in the ski weeks it is parking, more than slots and far more than aircraft supply, that stops a late request at Geneva. Ask us about the stand at the same time as the aeroplane.
Send the dates and the number of passengers and you will have real options with real numbers, normally within 30 minutes. The operations desk is on duty around the clock on +357 95 119759.
GET A FIRM PRICEWe would rather leave the figure out than print one we cannot stand behind. Nothing is a price until Diamond Executive Aero Services has quoted your dates in writing.
One season dominates this departure, and inside it one day of the week dominates the season.
From December to March Geneva is a ski airport first and everything else second. The airport runs seasonal coach traffic to resorts in France, Switzerland and Italy, and the crowd arrives and leaves in the same few hours on a Saturday. Terminal 3 keeps you out of the worst of it, but the ramp is finite and it is the aircraft rather than the passenger that runs out of room. For a Saturday departure in the season, ask early and ask about the stand for the collecting aircraft in the same conversation.
Outside those months the route relaxes completely. The ramp empties, aircraft shuttle between Geneva, Paris and the London fields all year, and a short-notice departure becomes realistic again. If your day can move by a few hours, that is also when a repositioning flight northbound is worth asking about rather than assuming.
For a fair number of parties Biggin Hill is a change of aeroplane rather than the end of the week. Anything that follows is cheaper arranged with this leg than after it.
Back down to the Mediterranean from the same field, and the usual shape when the mountains and the coast are two halves of the same spring.
Biggin Hill to Nice ›South over the Alps again in a little over an hour and a half, published in its own right with its own airport notes.
Biggin Hill to Milan ›The other Savoie field, and the sector to ask about when the next week in the mountains is already in the diary.
Biggin Hill to Chambery ›Tell us your dates and how many of you there are. Your dedicated flight advisor will come back with aircraft options and a firm price.
All published routes are listed on the route index. Also useful: the fleet, current empty legs, jet sharing.