15:52

2015 Christmas Getaway

Departures to the Canary Islands across the week

Departures to the Canary Islands across the week

As the school holidays start and the Christmas holidays get underway Exeter Airport is expecting to deal with over 20,000 passengers over the two week festive period.

Already three flights have taken hundreds of excited children to Lapland on excursions that involved tobogganing, snowmobile and  reindeer sleigh rides plus of course a meeting with ‘Santa’. The season of ski flights also started last weekend with departures to Switzerland and France, and the Paris flights are also popular at Christmas with trips to Disneyland.

The departures to the Canary Islands leave across the week with Las Palmas followed by Tenerife and Lanzarote; and there’s a Christmas Day aircraft leaving Exeter for Tenerife at breakfast time.

Matt Roach, Exeter Airport’s managing director said: “As well as our overseas destinations, Flybe’s domestic flights are busy reconnecting loved ones over the next fortnight as family and friends meet up for the festivities.

“The direct Glasgow service, which was recently re-introduced, along with the Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester and London City routes on offer, many are seeing flying as the best way to travel at this time of year.”

“The run up to Christmas Day will also be busy with passengers looking for an alternative to congested roads and the planned engineering work on the railways which will be disrupting normal schedules over the holiday period. This may mean that more passengers who are unfamiliar with air travel will be using our services; but our festive staff members will be on hand to help.”