Exeter International Airport (EXT) - General Thread

[TheLocalYokel]

Skypark

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/C ... story.html

Access roads have been completed meaning the site's infrastructure is now in place.

The 110-acres Skypark is next to Exeter Airport and will house warehouses, industry and office accommodation that could lead to 6,500 jobs.

If it becomes as successful as this it will undoubtedly benefit EXT.

In that sense EXT is better placed than BRS for airport-vicinity development in the wider South West given that BRS is surrounded entirely by green belt that precludes such activities.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Exeter Airport Host?

Following the news that Stephen Fry is the face that greets international passengers at Heathrow Airport via video, a survey was conducted to see who people would like to perform a similar role at Exeter Airport.

John Cleese (born and raised at Weston-super-Mare and attended Clifton College, Bristol) topped the poll followed by Miranda Hart (born at Torquay although she grew up in Hampshire), with Bill Bailey (born at Bath and raised just outside Bristol) third.

Others in the frame were the West Country Group The Wurzels, J K Rowling (born just north of Bristol where she spent her formative years) and tv chef Tom Kerridge (I have to admit he's the only one I'd never heard of).

Only a bit of fun of course, but I wonder what other airports might have come up with.

http://www.exeterexpressandecho.co.uk/M ... story.html

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Plymouth

Matt Roach, EXT's MD, is looking at ways to integrate the Plymouth business community into becoming regular users of his airport.

Although there is a significant band of opinion in the Plymouth area, together with well-organised activists, that believes that PLH should re-open it looks increasingly likely that it won't. I know there has always been rivalry across many fields between Plymouth and Exeter as cities but it does seem to me that Plymothians and that city region generally should accept that EXT is really 'their' airport now as much as it is Exeter's. I know that NQY might be useful for some who live or work in parts of the Plymouth region but EXT is probably the better bet for the majority .

I would not risk taking flak for suggesting that perhaps the airport might become Exeter Plymouth Airport, along the lines of Leeds Bradford Airport, but there needs to be imaginative ways of making access to EXT easier from Plymouth. A regular airport-funded bus service from/to Plymouth might be a start, if commercial bus operators aren't interested in doing it at their own risk.

My alter ego used to regularly argue this point on a Wales aviation website in respect of Cardiff Airport that had no regular express bus service to the city centre for many years, unlike its competitor across the Severn estuary that had begun its own express airport bus service (at its own expense) in the late 1990s, and it continues to operate. When the Welsh Government bought CWL one of the first things it did was to commence an express bus service itself, and that still operates too. An hourly Plymouth-EXT bus service would be a start.

The EXT owners need to support their senior airport management, probably by putting their hands in their pockets, if EXT is to become the default regional airport for Plymouth.

 

[737 400]

An old friend of mine who lives in Plymouth says that Exeter Airport is much easier to reach than Newquay.

Maybe rename EXT as Exeter and Plymouth International Airport or dare I suggest Devon & Cornwall International Airport?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats show that a million passenger journeys are made each year through Bristol Airport by people having an origin or destination in Devon or Cornwall - more than currently use EXT each year. Five million annual journeys are made through Heathrow by people travelling from/to the wider South West (the government region).

So there are a lot of passengers out there who could be 'captured' - not all obviously - but certainly some.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

An old friend of mine who lives in Plymouth says that Exeter Airport is much easier to reach than Newquay.

Maybe rename EXT as Exeter and Plymouth International Airport or dare I suggest Devon & Cornwall International Airport?

I wonder what importance an airport name has when it comes to passenger usage. I know that some people become very protective towards their local airport. In some cases they support it as they might support their local football team with local competitor airports viewed with disdain.

There has long been a certain amount of rivalry between the cities of Plymouth and Exeter which certainly involved the respective airports. Now that Plymouth no longer has an airport, with the chances of it being reopened looking slim, would the renaming of EXT to include a reference to Plymouth embrace the sensibilities of those Plymothians who feel no loyalty towards EXT as it's the airport of their closest competitor city?

In one sense the thought is risible because EXT would not have moved and would still be the same distance from Plymouth, but it might appease at least a minority of the football club-type airport supporter who might begin to regard EXT as their own airport.

I'm doubtful that it would make any appreciable difference but who knows? Calling EXT Devon Airport would be more neutral. NQY might have something to say about Devon and Cornwall Airport.

Some years ago there was a suggestion that Bristol Airport become Bristol and Bath Airport as Continental was operating between BRS and EWR at the time and Bath is extremely popular with American tourists. I can understand a commercial argument for renaming but I doubted then and still do that including Bath within the airport name would have made much difference to the number of Americans using the EWR service.

 

[Aviador]

The name Leeds Bradford has worked well over the years but the name has been questioned on many occasions. Robin Hood Airport was the initial stage name for Doncaster Sheffield Airport but the latter is more commonly used now thankfully! How well known is Bristol on the continent and in the States do you think? I have often heard Americans quoting Leeds in media sources but Bradford barely gets a mention although most foreigners have heard of York. I have often thought York is close enough to Leeds to warrant calling Leeds Bradford Airport Leeds York Airport instead but I doubt it would be very popular with Bradfordians. Other countries use similar methods to promote their airports. In Germany there's the Cologne Bonn Airport and in Spain they have Barcelona Girona for example.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol is not that well known in the USA, despite there being about 30 Bristols (yes, I know )in that country, all named after the original. Then again Americans in general are so insular that they their knowledge of the world is not great. If it doesn't happen in the USA it doesn't happen seems to be the attitude.

Americans know of London and many are aware of Edinburgh. What I like to call 'twee cities' such as Bath, Oxford, York and Stratford (all on the US visitors' cultural trail) are also recognised to a degree. I've related before how when we were in the USA at the time of the Manchester bombing one of the big tv news channels headlined it as 'London bombing'. They then went on to say that, 'in the northern English city of Manchester, two hundred miles from London......." Of course, in US terms 200 miles is just up the road.

I conducted instant 'polls' of Americans' knowledge of British cities when I used to visit the USA with locals there with whom I came in contact. I do the same in Australia. In Oz it's amazing how the Premier League brings English (and Welsh) cities into focus. Whether that then causes Australians to visit these cities or seek to do business there I don't know. I didn't delve that far.

Back to EXT, I can't think that a change of name would benefit it that much per se. It's more a case of trying to be inclusive, with the Plymouth area particularly in mind. As I said in my earlier post today, I don't think a name change would make much difference.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

British Airways returns to Bristol and Exeter could be next

http://www.devonlive.com/british-ai...ould-be-next/story-30342392-detail/story.html

Not quite what the headline suggests but typical journalistic licence.

The article begins by saying that BA, "has not ruled out expanding services to Exeter and Cornwall Airport Newquay".

The BA representative actually said that there are no immediate plans to expand further West, but "we definitely would not rule it out in the long term."

There is talk in the Dried Plum of BA buying Flybe (ten years after Flybe bought BAConnect from BA) which would probably be the only way that BA would fly out of EXT in the foreseeable future.

 

[Jerry]

There is talk in the Dried Plum of BA buying Flybe (ten years after Flybe bought BAConnect from BA) which would probably be the only way that BA would fly out of EXT in the foreseeable future

Problem i see though is would a merged BA Cityflyer/Flybe stick around at airports like EXT as they don't have flights to Heathrow to feed their long haul service and BA have never been that interested in flying from airports like EXT. What would the advantange be for BA/IAG to buy Flybe? Personally i think the best airline to but Flybe would be Virgin Atlantic. Not only could they feed their flights but if BE were integrated into Skyteam they could help take some strain of KLM Cityhopper vis AMS and could add feed to Delta's flights not only at Heathrow but at CDG as well.

 

[Kernow Bravo]

AFAIK Virgin Atlantic is not a member of Skyteam, although they seem to have close ties with Delta as you suggest.

Although I'm not sure it is well publicised, FlyBE have been entering into various code share/interlining deals, most recently connecting to SQ at MAN.

http://www.flybe.com/codeshares/

 

[Jerry]

AFAIK Virgin Atlantic is not a member of Skyteam, although they seem to have close ties with Delta as you suggest.

Although I'm not sure it is well publicised, FlyBE have been entering into various code share/interlining deals, most recently connecting to SQ at MAN.

http://www.flybe.com/codeshares/

Delta own 49% of Virgin and I believe Virgin will eventually become a Skyteam member in time.

 

[737 400]

Personally i think the best airline to but Flybe would be Virgin Atlantic. Not only could they feed their flights but if BE were integrated into Skyteam they could help take some strain of KLM Cityhopper vis AMS and could add feed to Delta's flights not only at Heathrow but at CDG as well.

I wouldn't have thought that Flybe's operation would fit Virgin's profile.

 

[Kernow Bravo]

It seems that FlyBe are able to partner with various airlines whose profile they would not seem to fit - the code share with Singapore Airlines also came out of the blue! Clearly it is all about routes now rather than consistency of passenger experience.

That picture brings back good memories 737 400! In my experience, BD was an excellent airline back in the mid/late '90s when that livery was in use.

 

[737 400]

Hopefully any new code shares will serve to increase further the number of passengers using EXT.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.devonlive.com/exeter-air...rs-of-flying/story-30354427-detail/story.html

Happy 80th birthday EXT. Here's to the next 80 years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Lots of discussion at the moment in the BRS thread about overcrowding and lengthy queues at peak times for security outbound and immigration inbound. I cast my mind back around ten years when EXT was put up for sale by its public sector owners and the BRS owners became the preferred bidders. With sustained opposition from politicians, business figures and others who feared that EXT would be wound down the BRS owners withdrew in the face of a competitions enquiry with even the EC becoming involved.

This might have been a wrong move on the part of the Great and Good of Devon because it seemed then that BRS really wanted to use EXT as a complementary airport and that the huge outlay since expended on developing BRS would not have been necessary to that degree. Had the common ownership gone through EXT might be handling over 1.5 million passengers these days with more destinations and airlines.

Now if BRS is constrained in further growth (currently it is capped at 10 mppa by its planning consents but will be challenging that without a doubt) I wonder how ready EXT is to take up some of the slack. The obvious alternatives to BRS, apart from LHR, are CWL and BHX with the former being state-owned, ambitious and growing steadily, and the latter enjoying phenomenal recent growth in both passenger numbers and airlines.

EXT is potentially an attractive alternative to many living in the south of the BRS catchment. I live on the southern edge of Bristol and can get to EXT by road as quickly as I can get to CWL, with the bonus of not having to drive through or around Bristol itself.

 

[Jerry]

With BRS onboard it could've been possible they EXT may have gotten an Easyjet base. There A319s may be the right size for airport's like EXT and CWL. I've always wondered why they don't operate out of EXT or CWL or both as they do operate from airports in the same area. LPL MAN and SEN STN are examples of that.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

With BRS onboard it could've been possible they EXT may have gotten an Easyjet base. There A319s may be the right size for airport's like EXT and CWL. I've always wondered why they don't operate out of EXT or CWL or both as they do operate from airports in the same area. LPL MAN and SEN STN are examples of that.

EXT is dependent on Flybe to an overwhelming degree, not only in providing all its scheduled flights (apart from Scilly Skybus) but as the airline's headquarters, training academy and maintenance facility. easyJet at EXT would not be to Flybe's liking but the only way the airport could try to stop it would be not to offer any incentives and charge the full amount for airport services.

easyJet never went to BHX either, apart from one or two routes from other bases, which is a great surprise to many although now with the likes of Jet2, Monarch, Ryanair, Norwegian and Flybe at BHX the opportunity might have passed.

No-one can tell but, with a BRS-owned EXT, Flybe might not have become so dominant and easyJet and/or Ryanair might have popped up there.

EXT has good road connectivity from the M5; it's five minutes away according to the airport's website. The huge Skypark business park is also being developed next to the airport.

Given that the Exeter city region is probably the most economically vibrant in the South West (ie Devon and Cornwall plus adjacent parts of Somerset and Dorset) and that Plymouth's airport is unlikely to be reinstated the future looks very promising for EXT.

NQY near the south-west end of the peninsula is doing extremely well so, with two growing airports at either end of the peninsula, the loss of PLH is mitigated although many Plymothians would not agree with that.

 

[Jerry]

Looking at Flybe's routes out of EXT most of them are domestic though they do have some sun routes that they may not operate if EZY were there and I'd imagine sun and leisure routes would be their focus.
I do wonder if in the long run EXT could attract Ryanair with a couple of non based flights especially if BRS starts to get close to the 10 million mark in the next couple of years.