Exeter International Airport

Exeter International Airport
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IATA: EXT – ICAO: EGTE
Summary
Airport type	Public
Operator	Exeter and Devon Airport Limited
Serves	Exeter, Devon
Location	East Devon
Elevation AMSL	102 ft / 31 m
Coordinates
Website	exeter-airport.co.uk
Map
EGTE Location in Devon
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 08/26 2,076 6,811 Asphalt
Statistics (2014)
Passengers 767,404 Passenger change 13-14 3.4% Aircraft Movements 32,852 Movements change 13-14 4.4%
Sources: UK AIP at NATS Statistics from the UK Civil Aviation Authority

Exeter International Airport (IATA: EXT, ICAO: EGTE) is an airport located at Clyst Honiton in the District of East Devon close to the city of Exeter and within the county of Devon, South West England.

In 2007 the airport handled over 1 million passengers for the first time, although passenger throughput subsequently declined. In 2014 it handled 767,404 passengers, a 3.4% increase compared with 2013. Exeter has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P759) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers or for flying instruction. The airport offers both scheduled and holiday charter flights within the United Kingdom and Europe.

Location

Exeter International Airport is located 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the city of Exeter and is approximately 170 miles (270 km) south west of London. To the south, it is connected by the A30 dual carriageway which can be accessed from the east and the M5 in the west, just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away. The M5 enables good links with Bristol and the Midlands.

There is no railway station at the airport, and the closest station is Cranbrook (Devon) railway station which is 2.5 miles away. Exeter St Davids railway station has a bus link and is therefore easier for passengers using the airport.

History

Exeter Airport was opened on 31 May 1937 and operated from a "tented" terminal before the permanent buildings were complete. Jersey Airlines immediately inaugurated a summer service of eight flights per week from Jersey in de Havilland DH.84 Dragons. Railway Air Services ran connecting flights on to Plymouth and Bristol.

Wartime use

• Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

Aerial photograph of RAF Exeter, 20 March 1944.

In World War II RAF Exeter was an important RAF Fighter Command airfield during the Battle of Britain.

RAF Exeter was used by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Ninth Air Force as a D-Day troop transport base with Douglas C-47 Skytrain transports dropping paratroops near Carentan to land on the Normandy Beachhead. It was known as USAAF Station AAF-463.

Battle of Britain

RAF Exeter was home to the following Squadrons of No 10 Group during the Battle of Britain:

• No 307 Squadron from 26 April 1940
• No 213 Squadron from 18 June 1940
• No 87 Squadron from 5 July 1940
• No 601 Squadron from 7 September 1940

Despite efforts at camouflage, including painting the runways, Exeter attracted the Luftwaffe and administrative and technical buildings were destroyed.

USAAF use

Exeter met the requirement of basing USAAF troop carrier groups close to where units of the 101st Airborne Division were located and within reasonable range of the expected area of operations.

440th Troop Carrier Group

5 June 1944 photograph of C-47s of the 95th and 98th Troop Carrier Squadrons at RAF Exeter with freshly applied black/white invasion stripes to aid in aircraft identification from the ground. There was insufficient space to park all the aircraft on the concrete, so many were parked on grass turf.

The 440th Troop Carrier Group arrived on 15 April 1944 with over 70 C-47/C-53 Skytrain aircraft. There was insufficient hardstandings to accommodate all the aircraft so many had to be parked on the turf, some areas being supported by tarmac.

The 440th was a group of Ninth Air Force's 50th Troop Carrier Wing, IX Troop Carrier Command. The 98th TCS remained at Exeter until 7 August when it began operating from RAF Ramsbury.

On 11 September the headquarters of the 440th TCG was established at the group's new base at Reims, France (ALG A-62D), and the last of the air echelon left Exeter two days later.

Postwar use

Walruses of an RAF air-sea rescue flight were the next tenants and these were joined by a glider training unit early in 1945.

Post-war, Exeter was reclaimed by Fighter Command and a French Supermarine Spitfire squadron, No. 329, which came and stayed until November 1945. Meteors and Mosquitos made a brief appearance the following spring.

No. 691 Squadron's target-towing Vultee A-31 Vengeances, which had been present for more than a year, proved to be the last RAF flying unit of the Second World War period based at Exeter.

When No. 691 Squadron departed in the summer of 1946, the station was made available for civil use, being officially transferred to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1 January 1947 although there was still some reserve RAF activity until the 1950s.

Scheduled services to the Channel Islands began in 1952 and charter flights to various locations followed. A new terminal building was opened in the early 1980s and various other improvements, including a runway extension, were carried out over following years to establish Exeter as an important airport in the West Country.

Exeter was a joint RAF/Civil airfield in the 1960s.

The former Swiss Air Force Hawker Hunter F.58A J-4104, now "Miss Demeanour", moved to Exeter airport in 2004.

On 5 January 2007 a majority share of the airport was sold by Devon County Council to Regional and City Airports Ltd, a consortium led by construction firm Balfour Beatty. On 26 June 2013 the airport was bought by the Patriot Aerospace division of Rigby Group, which also owns Coventry Airport.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Air Europa	Seasonal charter: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Palma de Mallorca
Air Malta	Seasonal: Malta
Enter Air	Seasonal charter: Pajala, Enontekiö
Flybe	Amsterdam, Belfast-City, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow-International, Guernsey, Jersey, London-City, Málaga, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne, Norwich, Paris-Charles de Gaulle Seasonal: Alicante, Bergerac, Chambéry, Faro, Geneva, Palma de Mallorca, Rennes
Isles of Scilly Skybus	Seasonal: Isles of Scilly
Thomson Airways	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Sharm El-Sheikh (suspended), Tenerife-South Seasonal: Corfu, Dalaman, Enfidha (suspended), Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Larnaca, Menorca, Palma de Mallorca, Paphos, Rhodes
Small Planet Airlines	Seasonal charter: Naples, Verona, Ivalo

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Royal Mail operated by West Atlantic	East Midlands

Other users

• Capital Aviation is based at Exeter and offers a number of commercial services. The company have a fleet of turboprop aircraft, including the Beech 200 Super King Air. These aircraft are mainly used on a private hire/charter basis. Capital also provides emergency medical transport and cargo/mail services.
• There are two flight training organisations based at the airport: Aviation South West and Airways Flight Training. These two FTO offer a range of training from the Privates Pilot Licence to the Commercial Pilots Licence and Instrument Rating.

Statistics

Jack Walker House, Flybe head office at Exeter Airport

Flybe Bombardier Q400 in Exeter

Busiest routes to and from Exeter Airport (2013)

Rank	Airport	Passengers handled	% Change 2012 / 13
1	Manchester	84,618	32
2	Palma de Mallorca	47,356	13
3	Edinburgh	36,497	10
4	Malaga	35,430	20
5	Amsterdam	35,356	5
6	Alicante	35,271	21
7	Paris Charles de Gaulle	35,036
8	Jersey	33,070	7
9	Dublin	30,513	1
10	Newcastle	29,945

See also

• List of Royal Air Force stations
• List of former Royal Air Force stations
• South West Aviation

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Air Force Historical Research Agency.

• Freeman, Roger A. (1978) Airfields of the Eighth: Then and Now. After the Battle ISBN 0-900913-09-6
• Maurer, Maurer (1983). Air Force Combat Units Of World War II. Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Office of Air Force History. ISBN 0-89201-092-4.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• Exeter International Airport – Official website

• http://www.polishsquadronsremembered.com/307/307Story.html