Apron to passerelle
The last forty minutes
Everybody plans the flight. The part that decides whether a guest arrives happy is what happens between the aircraft door and the boat.
A party lands at Nice at half past eleven on a Saturday in August. Their boat is at anchor off Cap Ferrat, twenty minutes away by water and an hour and ten by road. What happens next is the difference between guests who are swimming at one and guests who are still in a minibus at two, and it is entirely a matter of arrangement.
The three ways to finish the journey
By car
Correct when the boat is alongside in a marina within half an hour. Cars meet the aircraft on the apron at the private terminal, bags go straight in, and the crew are at the passerelle. In August on the Riviera the road is the variable, and a twenty minute transfer becomes fifty without warning.
By helicopter
Twenty minutes from Nice to almost anywhere on the coast, and the only reliable way to reach Monaco at any time of year. It lands at a heliport, at a hotel pad, or on the yacht herself if she has a certified deck, which very few do. Budget three to five thousand euros for the aircraft and book it when you book the jet, not afterwards.
By tender
The best arrival there is, when the geography allows it. A tender waiting at a quay near the airport, ten minutes of open water and guests stepping aboard with the boat in front of them. It requires a quay the tender may use, and an agent who has arranged it.
The agent
Every well organised arrival has somebody whose entire job is the ground: the yacht agent, the concierge or the charter broker's operations desk. They handle the private terminal, the customs formalities where the flight is from outside the bloc, the cars, the helicopter slot, the bags and the boat's arrival window. The fee is small and the difference is the whole first day.
Use it now
Aircraft Selector
Which aircraft, which airport, and how long from the apron to the passerelle.
It is a small thing to organise and it sets the tone of the week. Guests rarely remember which aircraft they flew. They remember whether somebody was waiting.
