Turin
Turin Caselle sits where the Po valley runs out of flat — the western corner of the plain, the Alps at its back, the Mediterranean a short reach south. A hub by geometry, not by size: equidistant from mountain and sea, clear of the giants’ shadow (Milan, Rome, Vienna stay off our board).
From here three bearings open cleanly, no two fighting for the same air. North-east into the Alps. South-east down the Adriatic. South to the islands.
The scheduled line
Three legs hold the network’s spine. Turboprop, forty-four seats, real traffic — the routes that keep the lights on so the rings can be beautiful.
Where it gets interesting
Off each anchor, a ring of short, sharp legs — the places a jet can’t reach and a schedule can’t justify. Flown low, flown slow, flown for the view. Five rings, five aircraft.
The ones worth the trip
Eight arrivals off the board where the flying is the reason. Difficulty by colour — moderate, moderate-high, high.
Innsbruck
The Inn valley narrows to a slot and the airport sits at the bottom of it, mountains on three sides. There is no straight-in worth the name; you fly the terrain, not the localiser, and you keep your speed where you can still turn. A category-C field that humbles jets — we send the Fokker, and it earns its keep.
Lugano
An IGS glidepath of 6.65° — nearly twice the standard slope. You come down the hillside toward a 1,420-metre strip like you mean it, drag the power, and hold the picture. Get it wrong high and you float long; get it wrong low and the terrain is right there.
Tivat
The fjord of the south. You let down over the Adriatic and turn into a bay ringed by mountains that rise straight from the water, the walls closing on both wingtips before the runway shows itself. One of the most spectacular arrivals in Europe, and no autopilot flies it for you.
Dubrovnik
Down the Dalmatian coast with the cliffs on your left and the sea on your right, the old city sliding past the window on the descent. A clean approach with a postcard attached — the kind of leg that sells the airline.
Calvi
Corsica’s north-west corner. The published arrival brings you in over the gulf and asks you to circle to land on 36, low over the water with the Cap Corse ridgeline for company. A manoeuvre that keeps a crew honest.
Salzburg
The scheduled north-east endpoint, but the arrival is its own reward: a circling approach to RWY 33 with the Alps filling the windscreen, the Untersberg off the nose, the city below. Fly it in winter and the whole valley is white.
Sion
A valley floor between two walls of the Alps, a strip you reach by flying the terrain in and climbing the terrain out. Short, high, and unforgiving of a lazy energy plan — a STOL field, locked to the little aeroplanes forever.
Ohrid
The far corner of the Tivat ring: a UNESCO lake on the Albania–Macedonia line, ringed by hills, ~116 nm out on a Bandeirante. Not the hardest arrival on the board — the reward here is where it takes you.