EXETER

[flybeboy]

:bored:anybody got any info on whats in flybe maintance hangars or due in, have not seen much outside lattley, seems very slow just the stored planes being checked.

[Richard Taylor]

Are there still ex-BA Connect/Flybe 145s in there?

[Air Hop]

Most of what has been in recently can be seen here Flickr: Exeter International - EGTE (http://www.flickr.com/groups/egte/) along with some other classic shots. Don't think that any of the E45's are still inside.

[WOWBOY]

BB are selling there 60% stake in the airport.

[RHagrid]

As an employee of "Said" Airport I'd be interested if you could provide some evidence for making that statement. Thanks

[WOWBOY]

I am only going on what I have read in the news.

Balfour Puts Exeter Airport Stake On Runway (http://news.sky.com/story/1096716/balfour-puts-exeter-airport-stake-on-runway)

Balfour Beatty to sell Exeter Airport - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10085647/Balfour-Beatty-to-sell-Exeter-Airport.html)

Balfour Beatty ?seeks bidders? for Exeter Airport stake | News | Construction News (http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/sectors/infrastructure/balfour-beatty-seeks-bidders-for-exeter-airport-stake/8648587.article?blocktitle=Latest-UK-construction-news&contentID=556)

Based on "reports" and the original post should ave read "reportedly selling there 60%....."

It's not like I just randomly made it up lol. Exeter airport will be fine anyways, if flybe weren't in such a finial position I could see them wanting to buy the stake.

[RHagrid]

Cheers, as usual the Staff get to find out last.....

[serko]

This has now been sold by Balfour Beatty.

[wet wet wet]

Balfour Beatty has sold its majority interest in Exeter Airport to Rigby Group division Patriot Aerospace.

The sale of the 60 per cent stake is for an undisclosed sum and the proceeds of the deal are to be used to repay Balfour Beatty's funders. The company added that the carrying value of its investment had been written down to nil in 2012.

[AirportsEd]

More Here...
Rigby Group Acquires Exeter International Airport | Airports International | The Airport Industry online, the latest airport industry news (http://www.airportsinternational.com/2013/06/rigby-group-acquires-exeter-international-airport/14178)

[jabird]

Exeter joins Coventry!

Only in name.

Two quite different airport scenarios, ours was bought because of the attractive development opportunities around it.

This thread seems quite quiet, but I have always understood BE yields from EXT to be quite reasonable, although I doubt there's the volume of catchment to bring in many other players.

So presumably it is business as usual at EXT, or is there some development land included with the deal? That's not my understanding of the airport site.

[davidjohnson6]

Peter Rigby made his money as an IT reseller. Could someone explain to me the knowledge and expertise he brings that will turn Exeter (and Coventry) airports into thriving hubs ?

[WOWBOY]

Peter rigby wants to buy plymouth city airport and turn it into a heliport now.

[fairflyer]

Well he runs the largest fleet of helis in the UK, has his own little Citationjet and a couple of hotels in Devon and Somerset, so Exeter could be quite useful....will he move British International Helis from Newquay to Exeter...or Plymouth if he buys that too?

[jabird]

will he move British International Helis from Newquay to Exeter...or Plymouth if he buys that too?

I can't see the logic in this. Surely the whole point of helis is they can get in and out of very small places. If there's a runway capable of taking fixed wings at both ends, the fixed wings win every time.

The cost per mile of running a heli must be several times more than even a twotter with all the dangly bits still hanging (sorry, not in a techie mood today).

So even PLH is more than twice the distance back from Penzance, and Exeter - well why?

[Phileas Fogg]

Bodmin is a licensed aerodrome, Penzance demonstrates that those flying thingies with their dangly bits don't need a strip of tarmac to do whatever they do to get in to the air, so why a sought after piece of real estate such as Plymouth never mind EXT?

I guess they'd need Plymouth to tech stop for fuel en-route to/from EXT!

[robin]

He'd be better off on Perranporth

[Phileas Fogg]

Bodmin has an A30 and a railway!

[robin]

... and sits in the clouds

[Phileas Fogg]

Robin,

Put it this way, and I remember it vividly being on duty that day, where did 20 fatalities perish due to cr@p weather on 16 July 1983, arriving/departing the mainland or arriving/departing the islands?

[Wycombe]

I believe BIH have the FOST Contract to run the Dauphins for the Navy that used to be based in Plymouth. They presumably moved to NQY when PLH closed so that they were still close to FOST operations (eg, Thursday wars) in the SW approaches.

[EGTE]

And here's a link to an article about Sir Peter's interest in Plymouth airport...

Plan to 'reopen' Plymouth City Airport with helicopters | Plymouth Herald (http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plan-reopen-Plymouth-City-Airport-helicopters/story-19405654-detail/story.html?afterReg=Y)

[Phileas Fogg]

How many heliports does Plymouth need?

http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/5668536.jpg

[EGTE]

Good question! Staddon Heights seems to be fairly busy with several visiting helicopters most days.

[cornishsimon]

For whoever asked, all BIH choppers including the FOST aircraft moved to a hangar at NQY when PLH closed.

Well all apart from those deployed to the Falklands.


cs

[MARKEYD]

Looks like Balkan holidays have quietly dropped this summers flights from Exeter to Bourgas

This happened a couple of years ago as well , noticed they have added Newquay as departure point for 2 flights next year but no Exeter

[Cloud1]

Is EXT losing its based E195 because looking at the connections timetable it would suggest the Spanish routes are served on W pattern from SOU for the winter?

Will this mean EXT will only have 2 Q400s?

[cornishsimon]

Thought the 190s were leaving the fleet ?


cs

[Flyer2007]

I believe it's losing it's 195 for the Winter. 4 are meant to be parked for the Winter, temporarily replaced by the 4 175s arriving over the winter. The 195s are due back for the Summer 2014, when the 4 175s due over the Winter will then replace Q400s.

[Cloud1]

I dont think all the E195s will leave, they were on 6 year leases I believe but deliveries were scattered. Not sure what Flybe's strategy is because they have openly said they want to take more advantage of leisure routes - and this is reconfirmed by the increase in sun routes for S13 and S14. Will there be any other jet replacement to allow these to continue? The E175s are much more limited on range are they not?

[Cloud1]

Also are the jets being parked in one location or are they scattered across the network as hot spares?

[petey156]

Will there be any routes from Exeter that are not sun routes or charter operations?? Surely there is demand for more routes within the UK and Ireland and new routes to countries such as Germany, Belgium, France, Austria, Denmark/Norway/Sweden??

[Cloud1]

Petey156 - not quite sure what you mean, there are a number of city/key business destinations in addition to sun routes available from Exeter.

Year round:
Amsterdam
Paris
Dublin
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Belfast
Manchester
Newcastle
Jersey
Guernsey

Summer:
Dusseldorf

Winter
Salzburg
Geneva

Those that are seasonal, are very difficult to operate year round with BRS up the road. However it would be nice to see some of them operate more frequently especially GVA and DUS

BRU has been tried and died an awful death. I think Rome or Milan would do quite well

[Devonair]

There are also many more routes available via Paris, Amsterdam and Manchester with various interline and code share arrangements; Sydney, Bangkok, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Singapore, Hong Kong, Delhi, Johannesburg, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Madrid etc my flight to Exeter from Sydney cost the same as flying to London but was certainly more convenient- Manchester Airport was a breeze in comparison to Heathrow.

[flybeboy]

just heard on heart radio add winter ski routes fro exeter to geneva, chambery, and grenoble new route, no salzburg on add. so grenoble new route.

[petey156]

just seems as though all new routes that are being announced are leisure routes or additional frequency on destinations already served.

[MARKEYD]

Thomson are having a tinker about with there flights for next summer

Bodrum has been dropped and Dalaman has been moved into the Thursday slot instead of Friday and is now operated by Thomson based B738 instead of using the Onur Air A321 this year

Still no news on which airline is operating the new Crete service

[davidjohnson6]

Flybe to axe three routes from Exeter Airport | Exeter Express and Echo (http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Flybe-axe-routes-Exeter-Airport/story-20258601-detail/story.html)

Newcastle ends 28 March, seasonal Barcelona and Nice will not reappear for summer 2014

[Jamesair]

I hope somebody takes up the NCL flights...pax figures seemed to be on an upward trend.

[MARKEYD]

Thomson / First choice holidays have released there winter 2014 / 15 programme and an extra service to Tenerife has been introduced on a Saturday taking the number of flights to 3 a week

Aegean Airlines is operating the new route to Crete next summer with Air Europa to Las Palmas and Nouvelair to Tunisia all on behalf of Thomson Holidays

[MARKEYD]

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 ?

[EGTE]

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!

[MerchantVenturer]

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 (http://www.businesstraveller.com/news/flybe-expands-uk-southwest-to-paris-market)

[MARKEYD]

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

[Ckin Gal]

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

[Cloud1]

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.

[adfly]

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

[Cloud1]

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

[MARKEYD]

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

[crackling jet]

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 ?

[Cloud1]

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.

[Deano777]

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.

[Cloud1]

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

[crackling jet]

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

[Cloud1]

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)

[Deano777]

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.

[Cloud1]

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. ;)

[Deano777]

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

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.

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 :)

[EGTE]

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.

[tibbs87]

I agree, EGTE.

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

http://www.abpic.co.uk/results.php?q=exeter+747&fields=all&sort=latest&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.

[macuser]

Didn't Concorde go into Exeter at some point?

[Cloud1]

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

[EGTE]

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.

[davidjohnson6]

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...

[MerchantVenturer]

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.

[EGTE]

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.

[Capot]

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.

[davidjohnson6]

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 ?

[Capot]

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 Pax]

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.

[kirkbymoorside]

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.

[virginblue]

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:

[rutankrd]

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.

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 !

[MARKEYD]

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

[Cloud1]

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.

[Ckin Gal]

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.

[virginblue]

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.

[Toon Boy]

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

[Expressflight]

Scheduled services? Highly unlikely I would have thought.

[Falcon666]

Flybe. to terminate Exeter's Portuguese, Spanish flights - ch-aviation.com (http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/30675-flybe-to-terminate-exeters-portuguese-spanish-flights)

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

[MARKEYD]

Still hard to see who is willing to take on these flights for both Exeter and Southampton

I would imagine that Thomson will just add a few extra flights to cover for the summer prehaps ?

With the new services to London 3 x daily and Newcastle being re intoduced it looks like the seat loss will be neglagable , and the Dash 8 looks to be the main aircraft based at Exeter now

[Devonair]

After the disappointment of the Spanish and Portuguese Flybe services going, its good to see the domestic routes are selling well with Flybe adding 6 more weekly flights to Manchester.

Devonians seem to be grasping that they don't have to drive to Heathrow anymore to travel to China, Singapore, Japan, India, Africa, Arabia, Australia, NZ etc

http://www.westernmorningnews.co.uk/Flybe-unveils-additional-routes-Manchester/story-22878326-detail/story.html

[MARKEYD]

On a recent post on facebook Flybe have said

" we are planning to commence some more limited sunflying for summer 2015 from both out Southampton and Exeter bases by announcing this by mid Nov "

not sure if this will be to some more French destinations or indeed Spain ?

[adfly]

They kept saying it will be out by the 15th, I'd hope to see them next week.

[EK77WNCL]

The Q400's can do FAO/AGP etc.

If there's demand, which there is, they could use them on sun routes.

[adfly]

The Q400's would probably struggle with a full load, plus the flight time would be 3:15 ish meaning utilisation would be poor.

[Sharklet_321]

Not to mention the hellish 3hr turboprop experience from a customer perspective

[NickBarnes]

yes Q400 is fine for regional routes, but for routes as far as that is... well truly horrendous :ouch:

[Capot]

Before Chambery could take jets, some very popular charters were operated by Brymon in the 1980's Exeter - Chambery for In-Style Holidays, a ski operator based in Exeter, using the Dash 7. Flights London City - Chambery also operated.

The Dash 8 Q400 is a whole lot faster and more comfortable than the Dash 7.

These flights avoided going to Gatwick, and the very long bus ride from Lyon.

Every flight was sold out. Departure was 0900. Passengers were invited to check in early to join in an unlimited Bucks Fizz breakfast in the airport bar, got on board in a haze of aimiability about everything, and slept all the way. The wine was cheap sparkling white, with bulk orange juice. The cost was under £2.00 per head, nothing compared to the anaesthetic effect it achieved.

[Sharklet_321]

Exeter saw a decline in Pax in Oct by 6%. What was the root cause of this? Lower load factors or a withdrawal of routes?

The Manchester route grew considerable to just shy of 10,000 passengers in a single month. Why is this route proving so popular? It is not viable from Bristol - but it seems to be incredibly successful from EXT. Will it decline now that EXT is connected to LCY? Is EXT-MAN largely connecting traffic?

[cornishsimon]

NQY-MAN is also seeing a huge increase despite the London route continuing

[Set 1013]

Sharklet_321


The E195 has now gone from EXT which use to operate the Spanish destinations. I suspect all those pax are a good proportion of that 6%. It would of been even lower if BE hadn't of started the LCY route.


With regards to MAN it now operates 4 x daily. It feeds into the MAN Hub at the same time as several other BE flights from around the 4 corners of the UK. A good proportion of those pax will be connecting to other BE destinations. There will be some pax connecting to long haul with EK and Eithad etc on codeshares.

[GROUNDHOG]

I have been back in Canada so a little out of touch, am I right in thinking Flybe are planning to operate Newquay to Gatwick (PSO) and Southend and Stansted?

[RHagrid]

News has emerged that the GPO have cancelled the contract for the Stansted Mail flights from February 2015. At least they'll now have another stand available for the new operators being enticed in to replace the Flybe sun route flights!

[cornishsimon]

Is that EMA & STN cancelled ?

Drop in post demand or reflecting the speed of the motorway network past Exeter ?

[yeo valley]

Drop in post demand or reflecting the speed of the motorway network past Exeter ?

i would say a lot of both.also they started using trains again.

[Flightrider]

It will be the STN flight getting canned, and EMA will remain. STN has been on the rack for some time over the costs of providing he service between RM and the operator.

[MARKEYD]

Thomson have changed carrier to Endifa for next summer instead of Nouvelair A320 they are now using a Thomson aircraft on a W pattern from Bristol possibly a 757 which hasnt been seen at Exeter for a few years ( Thomson that is )

Seems to be a larger increase in IT holidays for next year which is good news

[Jamesair]

NCL - Exeter seems to going well with second month pax (Nov) standing at 2971 up 30% on Nov 2013, you get the feeling it should never have been cancelled.

[MerchantVenturer]

Thomson have changed carrier to Endifa for next summer instead of Nouvelair A320 they are now using a Thomson aircraft on a W pattern from Bristol possibly a 757 which hasnt been seen at Exeter for a few years ( Thomson that is )


It might be a B 738 in that BRS will have 2 757s and a 738 based for most of next summer with the latter, I believe, being used on one or two Ws as well as serving its home base with 'out and backers'.

[MerchantVenturer]

Flybe announce new route from Exeter to Normandy | Exeter Express and Echo (http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Flybe-announce-new-route-Exeter-Normandy/story-25782992-detail/story.html)

Was this one included when the 're-instated' Flybe Costa flights were announced two or three weeks ago?

Exeter to Deauville from June to September 2 x weekly.

[Wycombe]

Definately a new route not previously announced as part of the EXT "sunshine routes" re-instatement. Appears in the booking engine with flights available 25/6 to 3/9.

DOL was also announced as part of the BOH launch, maybe it will be flown on a W with one of the BOH-based a/c?

[Flightrider]

It is to an airport renowned for offering very significant levels of "marketing support" to airlines so neither BOH-DOL nor the subsequent addition of EXT is surprising in that regard.

[Global_Global]

How likely is it that EXT AMS will become double daily? My misses wants to move back to the EXT area and we now uses AMS to connect to BRS a lot as the EXT schedule is a pain but a proper double daily would be great. Any gossip if this is on the books?

[MerchantVenturer]

Flybe will reduce EXT-LCY from 3 x daily to 2 x daily from 23 February 2015.

Flybe reduces frequency of Exeter - London City flights | Exeter Express and Echo (http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/Flybe-reduces-frequency-Exeter-London-City/story-25797462-detail/story.html)

[Cloud1]

Had a quick look at a random date in March and it seems on weekdays the flights are as follows:

EXT-LCY 0645
EXT-LCY 1510

However the LCY second flight doesn't leave until 2030 so one assumes the aircraft will serve one of the additional BHD or EDI in between. Still useful for those in London on day trips but for the few (and I expect it to be just a few) on day trips to Exeter it's not exactly a long day when considering journey times to Exeter airport from the city centre.

[insuindi]

@GlobalGlobal: I don't think AMS doubledaily is at all likely, however, even it did come up, I'd advise caution to decide moving to any place based on a flight schedule, particularly FlyBE's route planning is anything but reliable, routes come and go at worrying speed.

[Global_Global]

@ins thanks. No I will not move based on their schedule ;) I just day dream that we dont have to use BRS and drive past EXT anymore... :\

[robbo747]

Wondered what was buzzing around at 2000ft around 9am this morning in Mid Devon, checked and found it to be a Bombardier Global Express (twin-jet) VJT822R which was about to land at EXT having flown from Miami, Florida.

Anyone got any inside information as to who was visiting, other than the crew of course?

[yeo valley]

Wondered what was buzzing around at 2000ft around 9am this morning in Mid Devon, checked and found it to be a Bombardier Global Express (twin-jet) VJT822R which was about to land at EXT having flown from Miami, Florida.

Anyone got any inside information as to who was visiting, other than the crew of course?


dont forget the plane lol. ring the airport someone will know.

[Have briefs]

My friend, who lives near EXT, is asking me what the big unmarked aircraft is doing flying round and round doing circuits and bumps?

Any EXT experts here?

[Barling Magna]

Is it that RAF Airbus A400 Atlas again?

[MELLYMELL]

RAF C17,it was also in yesterday.It even made the local paper.

[Devonair]

Terminal passengers up 7.1% to just shy of 800K for the previous 12 months. Nice to see the return of AGP, ALC and FAO scheduled services.

Key routes showing growth in March:

Manchester up 37%
Dublin up 88%
Paris CDG up 19%

Manchester is particularly strong with just over 12,000 per month - assisted by the 4th daily weekday service.

I looks like Flybe Codeshares with CX, EY, AY, AF, EI seem to be having the desired effect... LCY figure still not released, here's hoping they can bed down the twice daily service.

I also notice EY code now placed on DUB, EDI & AMS flights - as well as MAN.

http://www.routesonline.com/news/29/breaking-news/248054/etihad-expands-european-codeshare-routes-in-s15/

[MARKEYD]

Thomson 2016

First edition brochures show the following for Exeter

An additional Palma service on a Thursday using Volotea 717 aircraft but the dropping of Crete
Other wise the same as this year but Thomson are using a lot more 3 rd party carriers for there routes in addition to the Thomson based aircraft

Monday Las Palmas Air Europa
Monday Endifia Nouvelair
Tuersday Malta Air Malta
Tuesday Tenerife Norwegian
Thursday Palma Volotea

[MARKEYD]

Thomson have had a few changes made to there summer 2016 operation with Sharm being replaced by Rhodes and Tenerife now being operated by Thomson based aircraft , there is also no Endifia programme next year

Palma was scheduled to operated by Volotea B 717 on a Thursday but this has now been replaced with Air Europa 737 800

[PlymouthPixie]

As only a single TOM 738 is based, I assume either a second aircraft will be based or flown in to operate specific flights on days where TOM will operate three flights instead of two?

[MARKEYD]

There is no requirement for Thomson to use an extra aircraft next summer as there are only 2 rotations a day except Friday when there are 3 rotations and the aircraft gets back early Sat am

The 3 extra flights next summer are now

Air Malta A319 Tue Malta
Air Europa B 738 Las Palmas Mon
Air Europa B 738 Palma Thu

[PlymouthPixie]

So is there a reduced capacity from Thomson at Exeter next year or simply a case of chartered flights now operated by the based 738?

[MARKEYD]

Thomson have reduced capacity next summer , at the moment there are no flights to Crete , Endifia or Sharm however they have added an extra Palma service on a Thu operated by Air Europa