The train from Exeter to Paddington with a connection to Heathrow Express runs about twice an hour and takes just over three hours. For an air service to be effective competition it would need to run at least every two hours throughout the day. I suspect no carrier would be willing to take that risk, especially given Heathrow's charges.

A flight from Exeter to London would not just be about people from Exeter. It would appeal to people from west of the city - the connection to Heathrow for those people is currently not easy, cheap or fast.

Well that does not fundamentally change the rail vs. air calculation and don't forget check in times for flights. Do you honestly expect an air service to Heathrow will be cheaper than the train most of the time? Air from Exeter to Heathrow will just not work. Sadly, the train really does beat the plane in this instance.

Historically, on the rare occasions that services have operated between Exeter and Heathrow, they've not lasted long. London City, on the other hand worked for Flybe. Presumably helped by the additional time taken to transit from Paddington into the City negating the train's apparent speed advantage.

No inside information on this but perhaps it worked as a bit of a vanity route for the Flybe management to be able to reach London without taking the train and for important visitors to do the same in reverse. To make LCY work you need yield and plenty of it. A recent article has suggested this was sadly not Flybe’s forte.

It was a positioning flight for firstly Paris and then Amsterdam. Aircraft did EXT-LCY-AMS-EXT then EXT-AMS-LCY-EXT except weekends

An expensive positioning flight then.

Not really. In the end it was cleverly planned to cater for the directionality of normal travel. With few people wanting to travel from London to Exeter, it was scheduled to cater for the many more passengers wanting to go to the capital instead facilitating a day return option without needing to operate the quieter flights in the opposite direction.

Front page of the Blue Islands website has an advert confirming that they plan to operate EXT-MAN twice daily, with the start date remaining tbc for the time being, for obvious reasons. I assume the planned based aircraft will also operate the EXT-JER flight in between. However that will still leave a fairly sizeable gap where they could fit another flight - possibly AMS/CDG/DUB, or a third MAN flight (less likely in my opinion) depending on how demand picks up?

EXT-JER is currently scheduled to restart on 18/05 (unlikely to be a set in stone date) operating 6 weekly, then 5 weekly in June, 6 weekly for July/August and finally daily for September/October (bookable until 24/10 currently).

Good news regarding Blue Islands continuing the Manchester link

TUI have quietly dropped the Sharm el Sheik route for the winter and also from Bournemouth

Ryanair are continuing Alicante and Malaga throughout the winter 2 x a week , however Malta looks to have been dropped for the winter season

Capital Aviation
 

Rumours of them going bust ?

as in Capitol air ambulance ?

where have these rumors come from ?


cs

Somehow I don’t think so, their owned by Peter Rigby, owner of British International Helicopters.
Capital have been very busy, with this Covid19 outbreak, transporting patients and repatriating others.
so if I were you I wouldn’t spread unfounded rumours.

You don’t if you have an ounce of sanity go into London; No you hop off in Reading and get the coach !

Was Blue Islands thinking of opening a base here ???

Yes and I think they still are, double daily MAN and the CI (I assume JER)

EI Regional are taking on BHD to Exeter. Appears an announcement is imminent as flights are loaded in the EI website.

Confirmed, 4x weekly commencing 28th August. To operate daily Summer 2021.

Capital have been disposing of their Learjets which have departed from Exeter this week. It appears that The Rigby Group has decided to close the whole operation down over the next few weeks.

Ryanair have dropped the frequency of the Malaga and Alicante route to just 1 flight each week for the winter period

TUI have dropped the Tenerife frequency down to 2 flights a week for the winter season , Wednesday flight now cancelled