Route Development and Rumours

[TheLocalYokel]

Exeter Airport is trying to get flights to Poland and is conducting a survey to try to gauge interest. The airport's press release (see below) speaks of an unnamed airline that might operate flights. I suspect the airport has contacted an airline and the survey and petition is the result.

Who the airline might be is a mystery. Apart from Scilly Skybus all Exeter's scheduled flights are operated by Flybe and that airline doesn't operate to Poland from anywhere at present.

Exeter has never had a regular Polish route and it might not be the most opportune time to be looking at this with Brexit an unknown quantity when it comes to travel between the UK and the EU.

There are a lot of positive responses on the website survey but one snag might be that the respondents want various Polish airports and it's unlikely that there would be enough traffic to operate multi-Polish routes from Exeter.

Possible Flights to Poland

How popular would flights to Poland be?

An airline may operate flights from Exeter if there is sufficient demand; but to estimate the possible use of the route between the two countries we need answers to a few questions.
Please help with the following survey if you regularly travel between the South West and Poland.

Please complete the survey and add your name to the petition

https://www.exeter-airport.co.uk/possible-flights-poland/

 

[Jerry]

Only airlines that I can think of would be Ryanair or Wizz but they both have a pretty good setup at BRS. Can't see LOT as they (as far as I know) only fly to the London area.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I suppose that Wizz might look at somewhere like Gdansk because they don't fly there from BRS, Ryanair does. However, Wizz seems to be very cautious about the UK post Brexit and an airport like EXT would be a huge gamble.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

How Exeter Airport is helping the region fly

The boss at Exeter airport has launched a plea for regional air links while eyes are on London expansion. Managing Director Matt Roach said that the airport has a key role to play in ensuring the South West punches above its weight.

Full report at http://www.devonlive.com/exeter-airport/story-30236293-detail/story.html?afterReg=Y

Not quite sure what the EXT MD is asking for. If he wants more airlines/routes it's down to him and his team to get out there and try to get them.

 

[Jerry]

How Exeter Airport is helping the region fly

The boss at Exeter airport has launched a plea for regional air links while eyes are on London expansion. Managing Director Matt Roach said that the airport has a key role to play in ensuring the South West punches above its weight.

Full report at http://www.devonlive.com/exeter-airport/story-30236293-detail/story.html?afterReg=Y

Not quite sure what the EXT MD is asking for. If he wants more airlines/routes it's down to him and his team to get out there and try to get them.

Vueling could be a good airline for EXT. Start with BCN then slowly add AGP ALC and PMI .

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Vueling could be a good airline for EXT. Start with BCN then slowly add AGP ALC and PMI .

The snag with EXT is that it's so tightly meshed with Flybe. Apart from Scilly Skybus there is no other scheduled airline there and never really has been one of any substantial network.

In the past when Flybe has called the tune EXT has danced. Given Flybe's 'off field' presence there it's easy to see why. Flybe would not be impressed with a Vueling coming after their sun routes which, admittedly, have come and gone at EXT, currently come.

EXT wouldn't have the size of catchment to support Flybe and Vueling, even to the Costas in summer.

 

[737 400]

There is no reason why any other operators offering scheduled flights cannot use Exeter, regardless of Flybe's perspective. Whilst regional airports such as Exeter are never going to be on a par with major airports, competition from other operators for existing or new routes would be very much beneficial to Exeter and the South West, whether this be BMI Regional, Vueling, Ryanair or other operators.
The sooner Flybe have some serious competition at Exeter the better!

 

[Aviador]

Welcome to Forums4airports 737 400. You are our 2000th registered member!

 

[737 400]

Welcome to Forums4airports 737 400. You are our 2000th registered member!

Many thanks Aviador.

 

[Aviador]

There is certainly a place for Exeter airport in the region and some competition would do the airport good. Exeter used to always do well at attracting charter ops. Back in the 90s the airport used to offer flights to Toronto.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

There is certainly a place for Exeter airport in the region and some competition would do the airport good. Exeter used to always do well at attracting charter ops. Back in the 90s the airport used to offer flights to Toronto.

In fact, EXT had a weekly summer flight to Toronto from the 1990s until 2012, operated by Air Transat for a number of years, usually if not always via another UK airport. In summer 2007 there were two flights each week to Toronto: the Air Transat service to Pearson and a Fly Globespan service to Hamilton, a sort of Ryanairesque version of Toronto.

There is no reason why any other operators offering scheduled flights cannot use Exeter, regardless of Flybe's perspective. Whilst regional airports such as Exeter are never going to be on a par with major airports, competition from other operators for existing or new routes would be very much beneficial to Exeter and the South West, whether this be BMI Regional, Vueling, Ryanair or other operators.
The sooner Flybe have some serious competition at Exeter the better!

I add my welcome to Forums4Airport too, 737 400. It would be marvellous to have more discussion about EXT and the South West peninsula generally.

I agree that competition is always healthy but I can't see EXT supporting a Ryanair or easyJet or Jet2 or Monarch network and Flybe. The catchment just isn't there. Even without Flybe any major loco network is likely to be limited. I'm not saying that there isn't room for one or two routes such as Ryanair operates at Newquay but anything beyond that seems unlikely to me.

CWL, serving Wales's capital city, and with the weight and support of the Welsh government behind it, has yet to land one of the major lo cos, apart from Ryanair on a couple of sun routes.

I sometimes wonder what position EXT would be in now had it been bought by the owners of BRS, the preferred bidders, when it was sold out of public ownership about a decade ago. There were protests in Devon from business leaders, politicians and others who believed that EXT would be allowed to stagnate. The European Commission became involved because of possible competition issues, leading to the BRS owners withdrawing. Far from wanting to emasculate EXT there is a persuasive argument that the BRS owners would have used EXT as a complementary airport.

EXT's master plan, produced in 2009, included projected passenger numbers for 2015. There were three scenarios:

Low case No growth in new routes compared to the 2007 network and falling charter volumes

Planning forecast The Master Plan was based on this assumption which included Flybe developing a more extensive domestic and international network at EXT; Embraer 195 aircraft assumed to operate on longer sectors including Spain, Southern France, Portugal and Italy; some growth of new services from full service, regional, volume low cost and charter airlines; modest charter growth assuming that Exeter captures a greater share of the market

High case Additional routes and greater capacity aircraft used at Exeter International Airport combined with a more optimistic charter market share

Low case projected 1.415 million by 2015; Planning forecast 1.912 million; High case 1.956 million

So even the low case turned out to be considerably optimistic. EXT is not alone in this. CWL projected 4.5 million by 2015 (currently under 1.4 million) and BRS over 8 million (it is the most accurate of the three as 8 million will be reached this year). The huge recession obviously played its part in suppressing airport growth nearly everywhere and EXT dropped from just over 1 mppa to 700,000. The strength and continued growth of the Exeter city region's economy will stand EXT in good stead going forward but to what degree in terms of new airlines and new routes remains to be seen in my view.

 

[Jerry]

I wonder if it would be possible for Exeter to target foreign airlines who may look at targeting Devon as a tourist route?
If BRS's owners had taken it over i wonder if EXT would've had a 1 aircraft EZY base similar to what they do at SEN.

 

[Aviador]

I wonder if it would be possible for Exeter to target foreign airlines who may look at targeting Devon as a tourist route?
If BRS's owners had taken it over i wonder if EXT would've had a 1 aircraft EZY base similar to what they do at SEN.

I have been wondering the same. Obviously UK tourism is huge in the region but does Cornwall and the Southwest have a sizable number of foreign tourists? I know places like Jersey has a number of summer charters from Germany I think? Do you think there is sufficient business to attract foreign airlines to bolster traffic to the airport?

 

[737 400]

Thank you 'TheLocalYokel' for welcoming me to this forum.

Some interesting and valid points made, but I do feel that it is a dangerous situation where one particular operator provides all scheduled services to and from EXT - with the exception of the Scilly Isles services.

Whist the EXT catchment area currently doesn't support more than one carrier on most routes, (with the exception of EXT-PMI during the summer months) hopefully the situation will improve where other operators deem new routes from Exeter to be viable and/or seen to offer a better alternative on some existing routes than the current operator.

It is known that a large number of passengers residing in the South West peninsula fly from BRS due to choice of flights offered by various carriers and this needs to be addressed. Speaking from personal experience, booking package holiday flights from Exeter is far cheaper than Bristol - even with the same carrier, but how many people are aware of this and use Bristol out of routine?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I have been wondering the same. Obviously UK tourism is huge in the region but does Cornwall and the Southwest have a sizable number of foreign tourists? I know places like Jersey has a number of summer charters from Germany I think? Do you think there is sufficient business to attract foreign airlines to bolster traffic to the airport?

The South West is a very popular tourist destination for people from 'the Continent'. EXT used to have a Dusseldorf service (and a Hanover one via NCL for a while) that was used by German tourists. NQY still does, with a British author called Rosamunde Pilcher particularly popular in Germany where her books have been seen as tv series with Germans anxious to visit the Cornish filming locations.

So yes, potential there and I'm sure the EXT management is doing its best to fulfil it.

 

[Jerry]

I have been wondering the same. Obviously UK tourism is huge in the region but does Cornwall and the Southwest have a sizable number of foreign tourists? I know places like Jersey has a number of summer charters from Germany I think? Do you think there is sufficient business to attract foreign airlines to bolster traffic to the airport?

I think the South West can be an attractive place to holiday especially Dartmoor but an airline would be targeting a certain type of tourist.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Gibraltar

Could be having a short season for four weeks next July.

https://www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0....m-uk-airports-to-gibraltar-trialled-next-july

 

[Jerry]

Good news for Exeter. Gibraltar is a lovely place to visit so lets hope this becomes a permanent thing.

 

[737 400]

Lets hope this new route is a success for EXT, but it will very much require pro-active marketing by both the airport and the airline concerned.
On a different note, what's happened to the proposals/survey earlier this year for a Polish route to/from EXT?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Lets hope this new route is a success for EXT, but it will very much require pro-active marketing by both the airport and the airline concerned.
On a different note, what's happened to the proposals/survey earlier this year for a Polish route to/from EXT?

I think the airline, whichever it is, will merely be the carrier contracted by the short-break specialist company that is selling the holidays. I wonder if the Gibraltar government is providing some finance.

I also wonder how these airports were chosen (BFS, EMA, EXT, HUY, BOH and MME). Following Monarch's demise I can only find these UK routes from Gibraltar: LHR with BA; LGW, MAN and BRS with easyJet. There are some larger airports not currently connected that have not been included in this initiative.

Interesting too that BOH is also one of the included airports.

I haven't heard any more about a Polish route. With Brexit lurking in the background it might not be the most favourable time to launch a Polish route. Wizz Air continues to axe eastern European routes from a number of UK airports, with further route closures announced today.