Sion is one of the few European airports to require an individual pilot qualification before any IFR flight: without a Type A or B certificate issued by the airport authority, no pilot can conduct an instrument approach. Type A qualification is obtained through an online self-briefing via sion-qualification.ch; Type B requires a flight program on a simulator or in real-flight conditions. This is not a formality: the qualification is checked for every flight plan and must be maintained current (at least one approach every 12 months).
The reason lies in the topography. The Rhône Valley stretches in an east-west corridor, framed by alpine walls culminating at over 3,000 meters. The IGS RWY 25 procedure first descends at 6.0° over the first tens of kilometers, then the pilot joins the axis visually at 4.0°. Charted obstacles on the north side reach 2,865 ft (873 m), less than 2 NM from the approach axis. In other words, the approach requires reading the valley, not just the instruments.
For you, the passenger, this means one simple thing: your operator is either qualified and familiar with Sion, or they don’t fly here. This qualification cannot be improvised. This is also why ground transfer times are short; the airport is calibrated for fluidity, not volume.
