This was to be the season of skiing independently. The rapid expansion of low-cost airlines in Europe and the promise that the economic slowdown would produce bargain transatlantic fares looked certain to encourage more Britons to break away from the conventional package holiday and do it themselves.
This month's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington will have caused many to think again. Those who had planned wintersports holidays in the US and Canada may, if not completely deterred, now feel more secure in the hands of a tour firm with representatives on hand if flights are again plunged into sudden disruption.
And even skiers who are prepared to shrug off such concerns about going it alone are likely to be influenced by the prospect of airlines cutting back flights to cope with the enormous, threatened downturn in passenger traffic which now seems certain.
There is no doubting the long-term trend, however. Rather than fighting it, package operators are attempting to ride the wave, offering customers the option of organising their own travel and booking hotels and other accommodation separately, allowing them to tailor their trips to a length that suits them, rather than confining them to the standard seven-night break.
After launching the idea last winter, First Choice has almost doubled the choice of resorts in its Skixpress brochure. This allows customers a £100 discount if they can save on the overall cost by finding a cheaper flight themselves or if they have air miles they want to trade in. It includes 12 resorts in France and two each in Austria and Andorra. Basic breaks are for three nights, but can be lengthened by one or more days on payment of a supplement. Prices start at £229 and include car hire, and go up to nearly £600, depending on when you go and where you stay.
Market leader Crystal has also identified a trend towards greater flexibility and independence. It has increased the range of destinations in its short-break Fasttrax programme from five to 19. Last season, it offered only Switzerland. For this winter, it has added Andorra, Austria, Slovenia and France. Like those booking with First Choice, customers buy three-night deals with the option to extend their stays for a daily price. Airport transfers, which are either organised by the operator or on public transport such as trains, are unaccompanied by Crystal staff.
Airtours is offering four kinds of package, including no-frills holidays and flight-only deals. Neither of these arrangements include transfers, which can be arranged for an extra payment.
Thomson has started offering accommodation separately, partly for customers who want to arrange their own flights or rail travel. Even for those wanting only a few nights in a resort, it will search for suitable rooms in Europe or North America. The firm will also organise car hire. It has launched three- and four-night breaks aimed at people looking for impromptu getaways or short second holidays. These are concentrated on Chamonix and Serre Chevalier in France but can be arranged at other resorts. Prices start at £199 and include flights, a hire car and accommodation - including breakfast, packed lunch, afternoon tea and dinner with wine - at one of the firm's chalet hotels.
Swiss Travel Service also offers weekends, with three days/two nights in Crans Montana starting at £309, including flights and rail transfers. And for those prepared to make the long drive for a short spell on the slopes, Eurotunnel Motoring Holidays has launched three- and four-night deals at Brides les Bains in France. They start at £45pp, including crossings.
Do these developments herald a mass defection from the traditional package? Probably those taking advantage will be limited to an adventurous minority. Brighton-based Equity Ski, most of whose holidays are inclusive right down to ski passes, instruction and equipment hire, had already launched rocketski.com, an internet operation allowing customers to buy parts of the package separately. But managing director John Shepherd says: "I believe 90% of people will still want the big three elements - flight, transfers and accommodation."
And First Choice marketing director Adrian Harwood says relatively few customers have rooted out fares low enough to undercut First Choice's package rates.
"There aren't that many new skiers coming into the market, but we see sales of these holidays growing," he adds. "Customers buying them want to ski more than once a season. A lot of them book in March. They've had their main holiday and they want to go again but can't afford another seven nights."
Few resorts remain obscure enough to be regarded as genuine discoveries but operators continue to experiment with destinations way outside the mainstream.
The threat of reaction to events in America prompted Inghams to scrap its recently launched programme to Palandöken in Turkey. But it continues to offer a couple of other new, offbeat options. One is a string of villages, linked by tram, in the High Tatras of Slovakia. They offer fairly limited skiing, best suited to beginners and intermediates. But the trans fer from Poprad airport takes only around 30 minutes and prices, which range from £269 to £462 for a week's half board, look highly competitive. The other is Aleyska , in Alaska, which it recommends highly to intermediates, advanced skiers and snowboarders. Prices there start at £561 based on four sharing a room.
At least three operators - Inghams, Frontier Ski and Ski Safari - offer the nascent resort of Kicking Horse in Canada's British Columbia. And, still in BC, leading operator Crystal adds Silver Star , which is less well known outside Canada than it should be. You can ski into its main street, whose buildings and sidewalks are designed to look like those of a gold rush town. Its ski area is compact, but offers plenty of variety, with mainly undemanding trails on the front of the mountain and excellent challenges for advanced to expert skiers in the trees on the reverse side.
Club Med opens two new villages. One is 300 metres from the lifts in at Serre Chevalier in the southern French Alps; the other is a shuttle bus ride from the lifts in the Italian resort of Cervinia and has an indoor pool. Though the firm continues to target those who like to pay up front for the main elements of their holidays, it offers prices for those who want to get there under their own steam. These start at £653 and £646 a week respectively.
Most brochures are split into country sections, then resorts. Leisure Direction has broken with tradition by grouping holidays by theme. For example, it lists apartment packages and those incorporating top quality accommodation. Under the "Alps on a Budget" section, it includes packages to Briançon , the French fortress town close to the Italian border whose lifts are connected with the extensive Milky Way piste network. Depending on dates, packages there range from £174 to £599 a week for four people sharing a self-catering studio. Prices include car ferry crossings.
Self-drive specialist Motours also offers deals to Briançon and has introduced the little-known French resort of St Veran en Queyras . For those whose skiing demands are modest, the beautiful, remote region of Queyras , which lies south east of Grenoble and about four hours by road from Lyon, could prove the perfect choice. It has its own patois and many fine sundials, mostly painted between 1700 and the late 19th century by Italian artists, and now brilliantly renovated. The lift pass covers eight small ski areas. Half-board prices for a week at the comfortable three-star Hotel l'Astragale, which has a small pool, start at £410 in a twin room, including ferry crossings.
In 22 of its resorts, North America specialist Ski Independence will take one child (aged 2-11) per two adults for £50 from the start of the season until December 19. From January 1 - March 21, it goes up to £99 and from the start of April until the end of the season it will be £149.
Family specialist Ski Esprit - its name now reversed to Esprit Ski - has been bought by Peter Dyer, co-founder of Crystal, and has expanded the number of resorts on offer from six to almost 30. Last season, it operated to chalets in France and Switzerland. Now it has introduced hotels and branched out into Austria, Italy, Canada and the US. While its emphasis is still heavily on families, it now offers accommodation with dedicated nurseries and nannies in only nine resorts.
Airtours has new packages to Bulgaria's Borovets . Virgin Ski has added holidays at Sunday River in Maine to its New England programme.
Among the new ideas from Mark Warner are specialised ski-school courses in Austria's St Anton - including instruction in advanced and off-piste techniques, while Huddersfield -based Le Ski has undergone a major expansion, with the addition of six new chalets in Val d'Isère .
And in Tignes Val-Claret , Erna Low is now offering the latest new apartments developed by MGM Résidences. Much more luxurious than the cramped egg boxes so many skiers have endured in French purpose-built resorts, they cost from a total of £791 a week for a three room unit sleeping six - including crossings.
Main operators
Airtours: 0800 0288844, airtours.co.uk.
Crystal: 0870 8487000, crystalholidays.co.uk.
Club Med: 0700 2582633, clubmed.co.uk.
Equity: 01273 298298, RocketSki.com.
Esprit Ski: 01252 618300, esprit-holidays.co.uk.
Eurotunnel Motoring Holidays: 0870 3332001, eurotunnel.co.uk.
First Choice: 0870 7543477, fcski.co.uk.
First Choice Skixpress: 0870 9003214, skixpress.co.uk.
Frontier Ski: 020-8776 8709, frontier-ski.co.uk.
Inghams: 020-8780 4433, inghams.co.uk
Leisure Direction: 020-8324 3030, leisuredirection.co.uk.
Le Ski: 0870 7544444, leski.com.
Mark Warner: 08708 480482, markwarner.co.uk.
Motours: 01892 677777, motours.cu.uk.
Ski Independence: 0870 600 1460, 0870 5550555, ski-independence.co.uk.
Ski Safari: 020-7740 1221, safariamerica.com.
Swiss Travel Service: 0870 7275955.
Thomson: 0870 6061470, thomsonski.co.uk, thomsonsnowboarding.co.uk .
Virgin Ski: 01293 544889/0161-333 5560, virginholidays.com.
