Exeter International Airport (EXT) - General Thread

[TheLocalYokel]

Cardiff has the same limit i believe. I imagine as well that it also keeps down costs which is why some people believe it's done.

Thank you for that, Jerry.

I wonder if Qatar premium passengers are subject to the two drinks limit at CWL. Apologies for going off EXT matters but it might not be if EXT got a long-haul scheduled route in the future. They had regular Toronto links in the past.

 

[Jerry]

Thank you for that, Jerry.

I wonder if Qatar premium passengers are subject to the two drinks limit at CWL. Apologies for going off EXT matters but it might not be if EXT got a long-haul scheduled route in the future. They had regular Toronto links in the past.

I honestly don't know, i do know them and KLM business passengers get access to the extra part of the lounge so maybe the limit doesn't apply to them.

 

[Jerry]

Only regional airport to be mentioned is Exeter and then it has a negative tone to it!
https://www.independent.co.uk/trave...s-a8846271.html?amp&__twitter_impression=true

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Air Passenger Duty devolved to Wales

In recent months the Westminster Welsh Affairs Select Committee has been taking evidence from a variety of witnesses including government ministers, economists, representatives of airlines and airports and others on the question of devolution of APD to the Welsh Government.

The committee has published its recommendations today and has concluded that APD should be devolved to Wales from 2021. That doesn't necessarily mean it will be because the Westminster Government has the final say and currently does not favour such devolution.

All the evidence-taking sessions were broadcast live on video link and can be viewed retrospectively. Although a Manchester Airport representative gave evidence and that airport along with Liverpool and Birmingham takes a significant number of 'Welsh' passengers, especially MAN and LPL as they are the local airports for North Wales, the nub of the issue centred around the respective effects on Cardiff and Bristol airports.

Part of the committee's conclusions included this statemen, "We understand the arguments made by Bristol Airport, but as it is already a strong performer with far more passengers than Cardiff Airport, we are not persuaded that its successful business would suffer significant and lasting damage, even if APD were abolished entirely."

I listened to most of the evidence-gathering sessions via the video link and I can't remember EXT being involved in giving evidence or being mentioned.

BRS might find itself permanently constrained by its current 10 mppa limit which is fast approaching. If that is the case then it's reasonable to assume that neighbouring airports (ie CWL and EXT) would hope to take at least some of the traffic that a growing BRS would otherwise have taken. EXT is as favourably sited as CWL for part of the Bristol city region (I live on the south-eastern edge of Bristol and journey time to both EXT and CWL is similar) but if CWL had a tax break some displaced BRS services that might have come EXT's way would be less likely and might go to CWL instead.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Summer 2019 Family Flights - Exeter Airport

With the school holidays getting underway, Exeter Airport will be dealing with thousands of families flying off to a wide range of destinations this summer. Through the six week holiday period around 30,000 passengers a week are expected to use the airport on services provided by Ryanair, Flybe...

www.exeter-airport.co.uk

Recent press release from Exeter Airport setting out details of the long school holiday season and £1 million infrastructure expansion to cater for the increase passenger number now using the airport. The press release confirms that one million passengers are expected to use the airport this year (will probably exceed that - my italics).

With the school holidays getting underway, Exeter Airport will be dealing with thousands of families flying off to a wide range of destinations this summer.

Through the six week holiday period around 30,000 passengers a week are expected to use the airport on services provided by Ryanair, Flybe, Skybus and TUI.

Ryanair, in their first season of operation at Exeter Airport, are offering the first scheduled service to Italy with flights to Naples. The airline also has twice a week departures to the Mediterranean island of Malta and to Malaga on the Costa del Sol.

Flybe have flights to Spain, Portugal and France as well as 10 domestic services which include London City, Newcastle and Glasgow. The airline has up to 240 flights a week including double-daily flights to and from Paris Charles de Gaulle for convenient access to Disneyland Paris or onward connections to a wide range of international destinations with Flybe’s codeshare partners that include Air France.
Meanwhile Skybus fly up to five times a day to the Isles of Scilly.

Both TUI and their First Choice brand have holidays at a dozen destinations and for this summer there’s an additional destination in Turkey and now four Greek islands to choose from.

To cater for growing demand Exeter Airport is completing a £1 million expansion which is adding a new departure gate, new international arrivals area and domestic arrivals overflow for use during peak periods. The airport is expected to reach the one millionth passenger milestone this year.

Exeter Airport’s managing director Matt Roach said: “We are expecting the airport to be very busy this summer as our passengers depart locally to enjoy a wide range of destinations. Our staff are geared up for the summer season and we hope to make a departure from Exeter Airport an easy and enjoyable one.”

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Recent EXT press release.

Quicker Queues for Security gains high survey ranking - Exeter Airport

Exeter Airport has one of the fastest security channels of any UK small airport, according to Which? research published today. Passengers travelling through Exeter Airport wait just 5.9 minutes on average to pass through security, second only to London Southend and Southampton airports, both on...

www.exeter-airport.co.uk

 

[Matt kenshole]

Has anyone heard any latest news on the potential of easyJet coming in this year? There was a rumour floating around last year that easyJet were planning on entering Exeter for sun routes as part of their easy jet holidays launch, but that all seem to of gone quite now...

 

[Jerry]

Be surprised if they did especially with Bristol just up the road and Ryanair now operating from the airport.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Has anyone heard any latest news on the potential of easyJet coming in this year? There was a rumour floating around last year that easyJet were planning on entering Exeter for sun routes as part of their easy jet holidays launch, but that all seem to of gone quite now...

Welcome to F4A.

Haven't heard that one. I'd heard rumours that Ryanair might increase their presence a bit but that would be a simple task for them because they have so many overseas bases. I think easyJet would be a bigger surprise than was Ryanair's appearance at EXT.

With the current worldwide health situation it won't be this year, or next, with easyJet instituting a substantial reduction of its existing network frequencies because of the virus. I doubt very much whether it was ever on the cards. easyJet has its largest (along with MAN) non-London UK base along the M5 at Bristol and I can't see why they would feel the need to have a small presence an hour down the motorway in addition to that.

The caveat is that if BRS is permanently stuck at its current planning consent passenger numbers limit (and it won't reach that for a year or two, possibly longer given the Corona problems) then easyJet, and other airlines, would have to look to other airports around BRS if they wanted to further expand in South West Britain.

I think what does happen with these sort of rumours is that some people will speculate that because easyJet is turning itself partly into a holiday airline it might turn up at various airports that host TUI, but not easyJet. In the time-honoured way of 'Send reinforcements we're going to advance' becoming during various passages of re-telling 'Send three and fourpence we're going to a dance' such speculation takes the form of rumours with legs.

Incidentally, Jet2 has been mentioned in the same breath as EXT in one or two posts on aviation websites but again that might well be pure speculation or, in at least one instance, trolling.

 

[Matt kenshole]

It was a rumour that was doing its rounds middle of last year... would be a great addition to the airport... surely management must be trying to get some big players onboard?
NQY managed to bag BA a few weeks back... domestic or short haul, they would be another great addition?

 

[Jerry]

urely management must be trying to get some big players onboard?

I'm sure they are, whether those airlines are interested in Exeter only they know.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It was a rumour that was doing its rounds middle of last year... would be a great addition to the airport... surely management must be trying to get some big players onboard?
NQY managed to bag BA a few weeks back... domestic or short haul, they would be another great addition?

As Jerry says they undoubtedly are, as are managements at most, probably all, airports.

easyJet would either have to set up a base at EXT or use w-diagrams from other base airports: BRS-ALC-EXT-ALC-BRS for example, unless they used an overseas base to service EXT such as Toulouse-EXT-Toulouse.

A base seems unlikely because easyJet tends to operate a lot of year-round routes and it's doubtful that EXT could sustain that, and with BRS an hour away there seems little imperative for the airline to do so. Incidentally, the same position obtains re CWL and easyJet.

BHX, LBA and SOU followers have been hankering after an easyJet base. BHX already has some easyJet routes operating from other bases, but it handles 12 mppa compared with EXT's 1 mppa.

EXT would be in competition with airports all over Europe as well as the UK for an easyJet presence so would have to fight very hard. I never say never about anything in aviation because it's always throwing up surprises .......and shocks.

What might speed things up for EXT would be Flybe ceasing to exist. Recent press reports suggest that the DfT has been in talks with airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet about taking on some Flybe routes at some airports should that airline fold. Whether any of the current Flybe routes at EXT could sustain an Airbus of the type easyJet uses (A319 with 156 seats, A 320 with 186 and A321 with 235) at the same Flybe frequencies might be a moot point.

I think there are special reasons for the BA initiative at Newquay which is a short-season (just over two months) summer offering. BA in the form of BA CityFlyer tried several weekend summer sun routes from both Birmingham and Bristol airports for a couple of years up to 2018. They didn't work and were withdrawn so it would be unlikely that an airport of EXT's size would do better.

BA has largely withdrawn to London but if the LHR third runway is ever built there is talk that more UK regional airports would be connected, of which EXT might be one.

I keep saying I must use EXT one of these days. There is no doubt that it is a well-run airport with good road connectivity, better than Bristol's for example. My brother-in-law and his wife live near Widecombe-in-the Moor and use EXT for holiday flights. They keep moaning to me, as if I have any control over the matter, about not having enough routes from EXT.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

EXT press release.

Commercial flights resume at Exeter Airport as demand builds - Exeter Airport

Commercial flights from Exeter are now available to book once more, with Ryanair recommencing routes to Alicante and Malaga from Saturday, 4 July 2020, followed by additional UK routes with Loganair later in the month and TUI routes from August. Loganair arrives at Exeter Airport for the first...

www.exeter-airport.co.uk

 

[Jerry]

Exeter reportedly 1 of 7 routes Aer Lingus will launch from Belfast City

https://twitter.com/x/status/1283840352835850241

 

[737 400]

Great news for EXT and kudos to Aer Lingus if they are taking over the Belfast City to Exeter route.

As has been mentioned before, having more operators flying into EXT gives the airport a far more secure future, rather than relying on just one airline flying the majority of routes.

 

[Jerry]

The owners do seem to be recovering many of routes well. I'd have thought Aer lingus would look at Dublin as well eventually.

 

[737 400]

The owners do seem to be recovering many of routes well. I'd have thought Aer lingus would look at Dublin as well eventually.

I was surprised that Belfast had been given preference over Dublin, but there you go.... Either way, good luck to Aer Lingus and EXT.
Of course there may be operational and/or resource reasons which we are not party too.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Great news for EXT and kudos to Aer Lingus if they are taking over the Belfast City to Exeter route.

As has been mentioned before, having more operators flying into EXT gives the airport a far more secure future, rather than relying on just one airline flying the majority of routes.

I was surprised that Belfast had been given preference over Dublin, but there you go.... Either way, good luck to Aer Lingus and EXT.
Of course there may be operational and/or resource reasons which we are not party too.

I don't whether you follow the CWL threads, 737 400, but a few weeks ago there was a lengthy discussion regarding the Loganair CEO's comment that he had axed CWL-EDI and CWL-GLA because demand was down significantly and to continue with them would be unsustainable. This was a surprise to many given that Loganair was to operate from EXT to Scotland, and furthermore CWL has a larger overall passenger throughput than EXT and serves a capital city.

A poster who had access to the Flybe/Loganair data said that EXT provided a higher yield than CWL, hence the reason for its continuance. That poster seemed to know what he/she was talking about which would augur well for EXT generally if airlines operating from there could anticipate good yields.

Looking further into the future, if BRS decides not to appeal against the rejection of its planning application, or loses any appeal, it will be stuck at 10 mppa which it would have almost certainly reached by the end of 2021 had COVID not intervened. When the aviation industry does recover from the virus effects in the coming years airlines looking to expand or set up in south west Britain will have to look at EXT and/or CWL once the BRS passenger planning cap is reached, so perhaps in five to ten years time both EXT and CWL will be seeing substantial passenger growth significantly above their pre-COVID levels.

 

[737 400]

Interesting comments there TheLocalYokel regarding Loganair and higher yields at EXT.

As you mention, there could be interesting times ahead in a few years for both CWL and EXT, if or when capacity is reached at BRS. With environmental factors now playing a much more pivotal role in planning decisions, personally I can't see BRS gaining planning consent for either runway extension or infrastructure to accommodate passenger levels in excess of 10 mppa. And that hopefully can only be good news for CWL and EXT at some point in the future.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Interesting comments there TheLocalYokel regarding Loganair and higher yields at EXT.

As you mention, there could be interesting times ahead in a few years for both CWL and EXT, if or when capacity is reached at BRS. With environmental factors now playing a much more pivotal role in planning decisions, personally I can't see BRS gaining planning consent for either runway extension or infrastructure to accommodate passenger levels in excess of 10 mppa. And that hopefully can only be good news for CWL and EXT at some point in the future.

Interestingly, both the Welsh Government and its airport company formally objected to BRS's planning application, but EXT seems to have made no formal comment although it would undoubtedly benefit from a stagnated BRS as would CWL.

BRS is not asking for a runway extension. It's ruled that out and I believe quite rightly as it should concentrate on what it does best - short haul. LHR is not a million miles away from the BRS core catchment area and provides all the long-haul opportunities that could never be replicated at BRS.

North Somerset unitary authority rejected the airport planning application against the advice of its own professional planning officers. They were warned at the planning meeting by their senior planning officer that an unsubstantiated rejection that was overturned on appeal could cost local tax payers a lot of money. Their formal rejection reasons had to be reduced from seven to five because two were illegal.

BRS has until September to decide on an appeal. I've long thought that an appeal to the national Planning Inspectorate would be the best outcome because a professional planning inspector would be appointed to look at the situation professionally and dispassionately and it would involve a public enquiry. That would be far better than local councillors with agendas and local pressures making the decision. Many of the councillors on the committee that rejected the BRS application were new and were elected on an anti-airport 'ticket' last year, so after the May 2019 local elections the rejection decision was inevitable given the new make-up of the council. Had the Conservatives maintained their previous overwhelming majority on the council the airport's planning application would almost certainly have been approved.

If the airport does appeal I would not say their chance of overturning the council's decision is remote - far from it. A professional planning inspector would be looking at the application from a legal and technical perspective as did the council's professional planning team. An appeal probably rests on how the airport owners judge the future of aviation.