Ski Holiday Flights & Airfares
Are you looking for a ski package including flights? Ski Travel can provide a fully inclusive package with airfares from Australia to your destination, including major ski holiday gateways such as Vancouver, Denver, Salt Lake City, Tokyo and Geneva. Just request it when your speak to us. Let us know if you have a preferred airline such as Qantas or Air Canada, fixed travel dates or if you are just looking for the best price on your ski holiday flights. Don’t leave it too late to take advantage of earlybird airfare deals with your ski package and ensure you don’t miss out on availability in peak travel periods.
You might prefer to book your flight online in order to get a cheap deal, take advantage of accumulated frequent flyer points and see all the options. So you don’t have to trawl through the many different online flight booking sites, we have compiled our suggestions of the best airlines to get you to your ski destination below.
Airline Info
Ski Travel Company are a Qantas wholesale partner airline, which gives us access to discounted airfares which can be included as part of your ski package. Please note all wholesale airfares are only available as part of a package.
As Australia’s main carrier, Qantas service ski holiday destinations worldwide with direct flights and connections to Vancouver, Calgary, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Aspen, Japan, Sapporo and throughout Europe.
Direct flights to New Zealand depart from major cities in Australia including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Adelaide, Cairns and Perth. Air New Zealand connects to some of the best skiing in the Southern Hemisphere with direct flights to Queenstown from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. From New Zealand, the airline flies to destinations in the South West Pacific, Asia, North America, Canada and the United Kingdom, all gateways to powder fields and dreams.
Since it’s first flight between New Zealand and Australia 65 years ago carrying just 10 passengers, Air New Zealand as the national carrier has grown into one of the world’s most recognised airlines. Air New Zealand services 51 cities in 15 countries, 27 of which are destinations within New Zealand.
United operates daily flights from Sydney and Melbourne to the U.S., Canada and beyond. Operating more than 3,200 flights a day, United and United Express connect to more than 200 U.S domestic and international destinations from its major hubs in the U.S.
This makes United the perfect choice for your next North American ski or snowboard holiday, with the added bonus of allowing 2 pieces of checked-luggage per person (each not weighing more than 23kg per piece) 1 ski/snowboard bag + 1 boot bag is counted as 1 piece so long as you fly United for your International trans-Pacific flights from Australia. To ensure this luggage rule applies for your Domestic U.S. flights, book your Domestic U.S. flights on the same ticket as your International flights from Australia.
Visit the United website for competitive fares to all popular ski destinations. United provides convenient service to U.S. ski resorts in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Nevada & California; and Canadian resorts in British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec. At United you will find a range of airfares available throughout their extensive global network, plus there’s never a booking fee for your United flight purchase online.
Fiji Airways are a full service airline which offer an excellent option for adding a tropical stopover to your Japan or North American ski holiday. Fiji Airways fly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Canberra to Nadi where they offer seamless connections to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver and Narita (Tokyo). Fiji Airways have also partnered with JetBlue to provide connections beyond LAX and SFO to ski hubs including Salt Lake City (Park City) and Reno (Lake Tahoe).
Ask us to include Fiji Airways into your ski holiday quote, and we can also add a few nights in Denarau, the Coral Coast or another island so you can soak up the sun!
Air Canada fly direct to Vancouver from Sydney and Brisbane offering the most efficient route to reach Canadian ski resorts. Land in Vancouver for a short transfer to Whistler, or get a convenient connection on the Air Canada domestic network to Kelowna, Kamloops and Calgary to reach the interior BC resorts and Alberta. Air Canada offer services in Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class.
Ski Travel Company have a preferred arrangement with Air Canada enabling us to offer discounted wholesale ski airfares in our ski packages with flights to Canada. With extended ticketing deadlines and even discounts in premium economy and business class, it makes sense to book your air and land package together.
Baggage: The standard inclusion in international airfares is one piece up to 23kg. If you are taking ski equipment, providing is in a ski or snowboard bag with nothing else (eg clothes) it will be treated as ‘sporting equipment’ and the oversize fee will be waived. Weight must be below 23kg and charges will apply if above your baggage limit (ie it is your second bag). For the latest Air Canada policy please click here
Delta Airlines are a US based airline that offer direct flights from Sydney to Los Angeles, with connections to most major US cities including Salt Lake City and Denver.
Delta Airlines are affiliated with Virgin Australia.
Flight Tips
Do you have your own ski or snowboard gear? Make sure you check the baggage conditions and excess charges to avoid high fees for excess baggage. Some airlines have special “extra” allowances for ski gear. We’ve included notes regarding this in our suggested airlines’ descriptions. It’s worth checking out!
Flying Green
Mountain snow cover is especially impacted by climate change. Ski destinations affected by warmer temperatures could have much shorter seasons or disappear from the map completely. The Ski Travel Company offers you the option to offset the carbon emissions from your holiday and help maintain a better environment for enjoying snow sports in the future. Cleaner Climate are a certified carbon project developer and give you the ability to calculate the amount of carbon emissions from your trip, purchase carbon credits on your behalf and receive a certificate.
Snow Holiday Sustainability
Mountain snow cover is especially impacted by climate change. Ski destinations affected by warmer temperatures could have much shorter seasons or disappear from the map completely. Cleaner Climate are a certified carbon project developer and give you the ability to calculate the amount of carbon emissions from your trip, purchase carbon credits on your behalf and receive a certificate.
Offsetting your Ski Holiday carbon emissions
Skiing holidays contribute to global warming, as the long haul flights required to reach one’s destination are emissions intensive. Offsetting your flight emissions through purchasing carbon credits can help mitigate the global warming effects of your flight. Use the form below to find out the cost of offsetting your ski holiday. When you press calculate you will be taken to the Cleaner Climate website where the amount of carbon emissions generated by your trip is displayed, and you can purchase the carbon credits and receive a certificate. Cleaner Climate are a certified carbon project developer. To find out more please visit www.cleanerclimate.com/en/about-us/
EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON THE SKI INDUSTRY
Traditional ski holidays could be a thing of the past in 25 years, with climate change bringing a dramatic decrease in snow cover at resorts in Australia, the European Alps, and even the USA and Canada. The effects of warming global temperatures will see a gradual increase in frost-free days and warmer nights. Milder winters mean a shorter ski season and greater reliance on artificial snowmaking, a costly and carbon-intensive practice Many ski resorts globally have already reported a dearth of snow in recent seasons, and rising global temperatures are expected to further reduce snowfall and lead to an increase in extreme phenomena such as avalanches and landslides.
This could drastically reduce the number of winter sports resorts or increase reliance on snowmaking, significantly increasing the cost of visiting them.
Leading destinations such as Whistler, in Canada, could disappear entirely from the skiing map, and the ski season in other parts of the world could become much shorter. Alpine temperatures have already increased by 2C since the 1970s. Further warming could cause the area’s resorts to experience a 30% reduction in snow cover by 2020, rising to a 50% decline by the 2050s. Renowned resorts such as Kitzbuhel could be lost entirely as snow cover decreases and, in 25 years, 40% of resorts in the Alps could face economic hardship or bankruptcy.