Has it actually been confirmed that Flybe will stop there services to the Med i.e. PMI , ALC , AGP and FAO from September as still nothing on sale pass that point

Thats a massive loss for the airport if that is the case , with no one much lined up to take over i guess much like the Southampton operation or are they intending to use the smaller 175 a/c

Easy Jet i am sure have looked at Exeter but with the close proximity of Bristol they wouldn't want to dilute traffic , perhaps a smaller operation like Vuelling from Cardiff might be an answer ?

An email from Flybe today tells me that a 2nd weekday service will operate from Exeter to Paris from April the 14th (early evening) and that the Dublin service is to be upgraded from a Q400 to the E195.

Good news 'cos I'm off to Dublin in June!

Flybe EXT-CDG increasing to double daily
 

I wonder if this has anything to do with Air France axing its BRS-CDG route at the end of next month which will leave only easyJet operating BRS-CDG once a day.

Before the recession Flybe claimed it increased its market share of the South West-CDG route, including enticing some passengers from the BRS route, when it went to double daily then against BAConnect on BRS-CDG.

Flybe expands UK Southwest to Paris market - Business Traveller

Does this mean that Flybe will base 2 jets in Exeter this summer as the Dublin route returns late in the evening as does any one of the Med flights during the week

CDG flights
 

Markey D - i think it'll be on the dash 4 rather than the E195.

As per the Flybe announcement, the DUB will be on the E195 but I am not sure how the schedule will be adjusted to accomodate this.

W-pattern from SOU? Or that could be the case for some of the med routes.

Not according to the connections timetable which seems to be up to date with the E195 schedule

Would suggests some people may be getting calls to say their flight times have changed

Cloud 1,
Yep your right about the time changes , the med flights have been pushed back with earlier departure times from Exeter now and the Dublin flight has been squeezed in at the end of the day using the 195 jet

Still looks to be 2 Dash 8 and 195 based for the summer

Thomas Cook have upgraded the Saturday Palma service to a A321 on a " W" pattern from Bristol this summer

Can any one clear up a rumour, supposedly Monarch are going to lease a hangar from Flybe at Exeter, What's that all about then ?

The rumour probably stems from Flybe's recent relationship with Monarch engineering who are now responsible for maintenance on Flybe aircraft at MAN, BHX and LGW.

As part of Flybe's restructure it was suggested their aviation services division would be sold off. Engineers upset that their colleagues had been outsourced to Monarch started believing Monarch would buy the hangar but this has no supporting evidence.

Monarch has no base in the Southwest and unless they were prepared to purchase the hangar mainly for external party maintenance then it would not be of any benefit. With such a large investment by Monarch in their hangars at BHX where the runway is longer than EXT I think this rumour can be put to bed.

Cloud1

The runway length at Exeter not being long enough as you allude to is actually a misnomer. There isn't an aircraft in Monarch's fleet that cannot get into Exeter.

No I didn't say that monarch couldn't land their aircraft at Exeter but as they expand and look after other airlines larger aircraft exeter cannot facilitate them. I am not sure an empty B777 could operate to and from Exeter for example?

Anyway the point I'm making is BHX can handle all Monarch require and offer possible expansion / more customers

Thanks Cloud 1, that's what we couldn't understand, why take an a/c so far out of thier way when there far are more appropriate facilities nearer elsewhere.

Deano777, i must say that you have a rather apt and unfortunate screen name and location at this particular time

I thought the same......considering the top aviation news item the name is an unfortunate coincidence

Back to the hangar issue there could be any number of airlines or companies interested but I doubt it would be any time soon and probably only when the airport is able to attract more carriers (when and if)

umm, what has my username, that I have had since 2003, got anything to do with Exeter Airport or MH370?

Cloud1.

Exeter is long enough to accept virtually any aircraft size, even a B777 if it is positioning in empty. For the record, PIA was going to operate a B772 into LBA instead of their A310s. Check out the runway length there. Anyway cloud1, I agree with you, Monarch probably won't use Exeter, but you can't really use the runway length as a reason.

Deano777 - seriously?? You do not see the unfortunate link to your name and location. Anyway point missed so we move on

I didn't realise the runway length at Exeter was such a sensitive issue to you. I stand corrected if a B777 or B747 can land and take off at Exeter. Still at least we can agree that it is highly unlikely MON will purchase a hangar. ;)

Sensitive about the runway? What on earth are you on about?

I was merely responding to your notion that MON wouldn't use Exeter because the runway isn't long enough. One shall pull out of the conversation now and leave you to it :)

The last time I looked the runway at Exeter was 2083m. My Travel DC-10s and Transaero Boeing 747-200s have all visited Exeter for either storage or maintenance in the recent past.

I agree, EGTE.

Some nice photos from visiting Transaero & Corsair 747's in 2005 :)

http://www.abpic.co.uk/results.php?q...atest&limit=10

The first Boeing 747 to land at Exeter International Airport arrived on 14 Oct 2004 which was the largest aircraft to use the airport in its 68-year history, arrived and departed without passengers after a two week parking-up period of storage.

Didn't Concorde go into Exeter at some point?

Alright folks the point has been made - the runway is long enough. The facilities are not.

The "new" Flybe maintenance hangars were built with the capacity to take Boeing 737 sized aeroplanes but they would probably struggle with anything larger.
Hangar 9 - which was known locally as the Vampire Hangar due to its inmates during the 60's & 70's - has a "To Let" sign on it. The largest aeroplane I've seen in there though was a Viscount.
The rumour does seem improbable.

Until 27 Oct 2014, the early morning weekday trains from Exeter to London involve either a train calling at every station and taking around 3 hours or not arriving at Paddington until 9 am at the earliest. If the train company has a monopoly on all non-car transport to London, this is a profitable approach since stoping everywhere maximises the number of fare paying passengers. I'm ignoring the coach which takes 4h30 as it's not credible for people travelling for work.

If Flybe can launch a flight to effectively compete, First Great Western will presumably want to give some form of competitive response. I'm guessing the most effective way of making life hard for a EXT-LCY route is to add capacity and/or improve train times rather than dropping prices. I'm not familiar with train franchising or scheduling procedures and hope someone else may have more knowledge.

How easy is it for FGW to add a train departing Exeter at 0600, stopping only at Reading and arriving at Paddington about 0800 ? Would Network Rail just refuse track access ? Would the franchise terms make this difficult ? Are trainsets and staff available ? Is there room at Paddington for this ? How long would it take before FGW could operate such a train ? Comments from those with knowledge much appreciated...

I live in the West Country (Bristol, although some in Devon and Cornwall believe that Bristol is South Midlands) and FGW seems always short of coaching stock with trains packed in the rush hours with promises but little action about improving matters. Plymouth, much worse off than Exeter for any connectivity, has been trying to get better train services from London for years without success.

I doubt that there is any spare stock going, especially HST units, unless it's diverted from elsewhere in the region - unlikely!

Most of railway South West England is destined to remain in the diesel age for years perhaps decades to come, with electrification only coming to London-Bristol-South Wales (plus Newbury and Oxford) from Paddington in the next few years.

EXT-LCY does look marginal versus the train.

In 2003 and 2004 Air Wales tried a service, 3 x daily at first, from Swansea via Cardiff to London City. Within a few months Swansea was dropped and the CWL-LCY leg reduced to 2 x daily, which by the following year had become Monday and Friday only and that was then axed completely before the end of 2004.

Cardiff-London Paddington is typically about 20-25 minutes shorter in rail journey time than Exeter-Paddington. An air alternative didn't work for Air Wales from Cardiff. Would the extra 20-25 minutes swing it for Flybe? Must be something of a gamble although I certainly hope that Flybe wins the bet.

Addendum

I meant to say also that there might be a difficulty in finding a path for an additional train at peak time into the extremely busy Reading-Paddington section.

It all depends on the pricing really. Train fares from SW England to London are not cheap (especially if not booked months ahead). If Flybe can price themselves competitively versus FGW then they have a chance. I shall ignore SW trains Exeter to Waterloo service 'cos that trip takes ages!

I've said before that air travel from Exeter to London has traditionally struggled due to the relatively fast trains that are occasionally available. It's the extra hour to get to Plymouth from Exeter and 2 hours+ to get to Cornwall that have made services from there to London viable. I hope that Flybe can break that tradition. Good luck to them.

The simple arithmetic for rail vs air for Exeter - London (city centre to city centre) has always been the downfall of air services to Gatwick, which have been run, on and off, since the 1980s, as it would be to any airport near London. London City is on the edge of that category; we'll see how that works out. It's easy for Canary Wharf, quite a long ride to the City, and even longer to the West End.

Even with short check-in and security transit times, the air service cannot beat the rail service on overall speed. It can of course offer much less expensive fares than the rail 1st class fare, even taking the rail element of the air journey into account.

Passengers travelling out of the UK an air service to a hub airport can create a demand, but either the sector yield is too low to be viable, or the sector fare is too high for the passenger, who can always get a bus or train instead to the hub airport if it's in UK.

Part of the rationale of the CDG route is to access lower-cost long-haul services, perhaps even short-haul services, from there. As the London airports get more crowded and thus too expensive for (passengers using) small regional airlines, this makes more and more sense.

By the way, the worst case departure from Exeter's 2083m was a DC8 going non-stop to Toronto. It was a terrifying event for those on board, as the aircraft slowly gathered just enough speed to make a full-stop a crash. Concorde's several take-offs were fighter performance by comparison.

Not sure I've made my point clearly enough. Trains times tomorrow (Thursday) from Exeter to London leaving before 09h00 are, filtering out cases where a train is substantially overtaken:

dep 0510 arr 0846 takes 3h36, to Waterloo
dep 0546 arr 0838 takes 2h52, to Paddington
dep 0652 arr 0900 takes 2h08, to Paddington
dep 0753 arr 1002 takes 2h09, to Paddington
dep 0851 arr 1124 takes 2h33, to Paddington

I assume most people travelling for work and expected to spend the whole day alert will be unhappy with a 0510 train departure and even 0546 is less than appealing.

It's clear that a train can do Exeter to Paddington in 2h08. However assuming a business location is not adjacent to Paddington, it's very difficult to make a meeting before about 0930 or 1000.

Alternatively
EXT dep 0640 LCY arr 0800
Just late enough to be palatable to those who like a good night's sleep, and arrives early enough to make a 9 am meeting viable anywhere in central London.

Frankly a rather compelling option to anyone who would otherwise be travelling early morning from Exeter to London for work, and potentially slashing demand in first class on the early morning trains. Will First Great Western respond, and if so, how ?

EXT dep 0640 LCY arr 0800

You wouldn't want to be checking in/hitting Security much after 0605, and that's after parking and getting to the terminal, or spending a lot on a taxi.

STA LCY 0800, out of the airport door at 0820 on a good day with no baggage, arrive in the City at 0845 by cab, 0900 by rail, West End by 0915. It might be worth having a look at the airport schedule for 0745 - 0815 to form an assessment of what the actual slot time might be and the likelihood of being on the stand at 0800 precisely. Marketing promises are one thing; operational reality another.

Railway is 0652 - 0915 to West End, 0652 - 0930 to City. Hmmm, the only thing going for air service is price, IF it's lower than 1st Class on the railway, and the dreadful service provided by FGW, which is getting steadily worse. ("We are very sorry for .....no catering/late/cancelled/no driver/no catering/so service/no seats/no wifi/no seat power sockets; so sorry....please don't complain or we'll have you arrested". Guaranteed to be one or more of those on any service, as you trundle towards London in repainted 1980's rolling stock.)

Curious that Manchester Airport to Heathrow Airport is about 15 miles further (on land - source google maps) than Exeter Airport to London City Airport, but BA schedule the trip for 65 minutes, rather than the 80 minutes that Flybe are allowing. I would have thought that unless you were unlucky, the holding time around 8am into LHR would be greater than into LCY. That would suggest that quite a bit of extra contingency has been built into this service to try and ensure that it has a good chance of getting a reputation among frequent flyers as being very punctual.

Surely the bigger challenge for Flybe will be to generate a healthy load on the first flight back to Exeter from LCY... If they do not succeed there then the loadfactor for the morning rotation taken as as a whole will not be too wonderful regardless of how full the first leg is.

Just noted that the new BE network from LCY has been added to the airports website in the schedules section - with the exception of Exeter. :confused:

To avoid conflicting traffic flows at both Heathrow and City your Dash is going to have a choice of lovely detours depending on runway direction and prevailing weather

The Northern route over Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire passing just south of Luton towards St Albans Hatfield Cheshunt and entering the circuit for City around Romford/Upminster

The Southern route towards Southampton through Gatwick area traffic around Midhurst up towards Biggin entering the southern pattern around Bexley/Dartford.

No way straight across the city other than transiting at above 14,000 feet towards Sheerness and backtracking into the circuit towards Dartford

Air mileage probably greater in reality.

As to the Manchester shuttles two circuits of Bovingdon with fellow shuttles and combined with European Lambourn traffic filtering out Heavies and hold times can be pretty short.

For optimal separation purposes ATC operate a policy of grouping Heavies where ever possible at Heathrow not all slots are equal !

Thomson have added Rhodes to there destinations from Exeter for 2015 no carrier been listed at the moment otherwise its the same programme as this year

Still no sign of any carrier taking over the Flybe routes to the Med which finish at the end of Sept / Oct this year

Same sort of situation as Southampton with no carrier in the pipeline

Back before the Flybe Spanish routes and the TOM (then Air2000) base Exeter had a nice mix of traffic from overseas operators. A number of those have disappeared over the years but maybe we could see Air Europa back or Voletea or Vueling start operating even if it's just once or twice a week.

I would guess it will be TOM operating the Rhodes next year - if not maybe Aegean.

'New' flights for W14
 

Just seen the NCL flights are back for W14 as hoped, with an extra MAN flight and the new LCY flights looks positive so far.

Once again, BE has filed slots requests at DUS for twice daily flights to EXT, this time for the upcoming winter schedule. Has there been any serious talk about such a route at the EXT end? I am inclined to believe that EXT as the destination filed might just be a filler for a more likely destination, hence my asking.

The reality is that UK APD is UKL26 per round trip, a staff ticket costrs an additional UKL18, so the airline gets nothing, however that is not the point.
A commercial passenger costs the same UKL26 APD plus most of the remaining UKL18 as airport charges, I think EXT is UKL13, so Flybe gets UKL5 for a staff ticket.
Relate that to a commercial fare, the same UKL39 taken by AFD and airport charges, on a UKL 49.99 fare??? How does that work?
So much for goverment regional support. Conservatives, Labour amd the other lot are all two faced... may be Farage... come on Nigel ,support the regions and regional air transport!!
G

Scheduled services? Highly unlikely I would have thought.

Flybe. to terminate Exeter's Portuguese, Spanish flights - ch-aviation.com

Just read this, doesn't look like good news if true