Exeter Airport's situation is different to Durham Tees Valley, if only because of its strong links with Flybe which is headquartered at EXT and has a training academy and engineering base there too.
Flybe is the dominant airline at the airport and operates nearly all the scheduled services.
Exeter's fortunes in terms of passenger numbers are therefore inextricably linked with Flybe and, mainly because the airline has been cutting back on frequencies and some routes from the airport in recent years, especially in winter, the overall annual passenger throughput has dropped from just over one million in 2007 to 710,000 in 2011, a reduction of around 30%.