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24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,672

Great news for Exeter!!!

VLM
Is considering starting service from London City to Exeter. The route could connect from Amsterdam. VLM is looking at a possible launch in Sep03.

And more BA news....

British Airways
Will discontinue service from Newcastle to Bristol effective on 25Oct03.

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 375

Brilliant

Good to hear about the possible new EXT-LCY service !! :cool:

About time Exeter gets some decent routes - I wonder what the prices will be like...

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,672

VLM are more of a Buisness class airline, so i suppose it'll be around the £80-100 mark. It'l probably also be a Fokker 50 on the route

Member for

20 years 9 months

Posts: 12

This route is planed to be operated by SWAir Ltd, a consortium of local business, using a Fokker 50 of VLM. As a member of staff at EXT, it would be a great service, but if you come here on a Monday or Saturday in particular, we just dont have enough Check in desks to give the quality service im sure the airline would expect.

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 869

How many check in desks do you have down at Exeter. Blackpool only has four and copes amazingly well considering they sometimes have three or four flights checking in at the same time. Last time I was there they were checking in a holiday charter, a flight to Dublin, Keenair to Isle of Man and a Flybe to Belfast.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 6,072

Good to see a new route at EXT. When I went down to EXT last year, the place was so quiet... I saw one flight take off that day, a FlyBe dash 8.

Be nice to see it becoming a bit more of a player in the regional sector.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,279

The prices should be quite reasonable, look at the Manchester flights. Good news to see a London flight but a few carriers have tried it and failed though VLM are a good, well known airline who probably could encourage growth on the route.

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 375

Exeter Check-in desks

I can't be sure about the number of desks but it's around 4-6 I think.

One day in the week when there are about 7 charter airlines flying in (impressive!), the terminal is so full of people it's almost impossible to walk through because the whole area is full of ques to check-in.

We need a new terminal - but then on the quiet days its empty...

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

Why is it, that ATM-style self service check ins are so rare in the UK? You only ever see them at big airports.

They are so much quicker and easier than queing for a check in desk, and presumably cheaper for both airline and airport too.

Member for

20 years 9 months

Posts: 12

We've got 12 Check ins in total, two of which are FlyBe's own. This leaves us with just 10 to play around with. But you consider,say a Tuesday morning, you have an A320 to MLA, a A320 (somethimes a A321) to TFS, An A310 to YYZ and a B738 to HER, along with a IOS Skybus and a couple Flybe's.....it gets a bit manic. I dont think its the number of desks, but its the room for PAX to queue. WE JUST DONT HAVE ENOUGH!!!!
But them theres Wednesday mornings......No jet activity until a PFO at 1800. Thats a very boring shift.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,279

Would you be in favour of an airport on the South Hams to combine both Exeter and Plymouth traffic?

I remember watching the BBC regional news a while back and there were plans shown for the new Exeter terminal, whatever happened to that plan?

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20 years 9 months

Posts: 12

Still awaiting approval. Plans have been submitted to the relevant areas, and talks seem to think that it could be up and running by 2008 (assuming that it is approved)
From hearing things on the grapevine, it seems that it will be built North side, and the current terminal and apron space will be used as some sort of exec flight centre and parking for the nightly mail flights. The new terminal could have ten or so nose in stands, some of which will be big enough for our toronto flight, and the possiblity of 2 of those stands having an airbridge.

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20 years 11 months

Posts: 869

Exeter is a great candidate for expansion in my eyes. How many Toronto flights do you have a month?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,279

That is interesting. Exeter has the room to expand for both terminal and even runway if required so it is quite well placed for meeting the South West's needs.
Heard of possible Flybe. expansion, is that true? Plus the Exter to the Channel Islands route is doing as good as ever, there is an extra 146 on the route if I am not mistaken.

Member for

20 years 9 months

Posts: 12

And would i be in favour of the new South Hams airport? Call me biased but HELL NO!!! (I work at EXT)
Bad plan from the word go. Ext has great weather, a decent length runway that can technically handle up to A340 a/c, Great staff (!) and good location and transport links.
South Hams has very dodgy wx, and the runway would only be able to handle A320 family size a/c. Whats the point? I thought the idea was to expand? Why limit yourself ?

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20 years 9 months

Posts: 12

Its a weekly A310 service to YYZ via BHX, every Tueday (dealt with it today myself)
Flybe has an extra saturday 146 service to Jersey, mostly to cater for the weekly influx of 'Majestic' Holiday makers. There is little communication from upstairs, so we here about plans like every one else, newspapers, tv etc, but rumour has it that some of Flybes recent Dash8-400 order are on their way to us, increaseing capacity on existing routes, but also the possiblity of consolidationg flights with nearby Southampton, therefore offering services to the likes of GVA etc. Apparantly this new base hasnt taken off as well as they would have liked.

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24 years 2 months

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SOU not doing as well as expected? That is a surprise. I had read that their bookings were in exccess of what they had expected with new routes being added early because of demand . While I do not see Bergarac doing as well as expected, I thought places such as Barcelona would be quite lucrative for Flybe?

I know there were rumours about Flybe. quitting the JER-GCI-EXT route. While quite popular, as a result of taxes down here in the Channel Islands and aircraft types they were considering quitting the routes because they could not fill a -Q400. Nothing heard lately but there was a big thing made about what they had said about the GCI/JER-EXT and BHX routes.

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24 years 2 months

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Adrian - I know there is a lot of bad feeling at the moment about the States tactics with Aurigny but this Flybe attitude just stinks. They show no dedication to the islands, just themselves.

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21 years

Posts: 268

Great to hear Exeter may get a new service with VLM up to London City. Was there last summer, really liked Exeter Airport had a real holiday feel, like you've arrived at the English Riviera ! With more interest in UK holidays, hopefully the route should do well.

Incidentally I have also heard VLM have looked at Manchester-Newquay.

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24 years 2 months

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Ultimatums to the islands are quite harsh but in the end British European have a business to run. If routes cannot be made profitable with a –Q400 or a BAe 146 then with their habits of network changes, unfortunately unprofitable routes might have to be dropped, as the airline can not justify them. While I see the airline as committed to the Channel Islands, setting up Southampton as a European hub is an example, in certain ways it is questionable but in the end they are now a low cost, European carrier and is not ultimately catering for the Channel Islands. While The States buying Aurigny has made it even worse, a virtual monopoly and a question over impartiality, I cannot blame it all on the airline. High landing fees and bad attitudes towards local airlinks by the island will at length damage tourist numbers, far beyond British Europeans ability to control leading to a loss of passenger numbers and in the end these feared route cuts.