First Choice, the largest holiday package company at Exeter International Airport has announced that from the summer of 2008 a First Choice Airline aircraft will be based at the airport. The company, which already has an aircraft based at Exeter for the winter season, will fully commit to the airport operation in a move that will see over fifty jobs being brought to the region.
An aircraft, which First Choice previously based at Cardiff, has been moved to Exeter and will fly on the new route to Rhodes from mid-July 2008 and increase the frequency on the Larnaca, Corfu and Palma routes.
Jamie Christon, the airport’s Commercial Director said; “We are delighted that First Choice has extended their commitment to Exeter. With this move Exeter has become one of a very few airports in the UK with an increase in based aircraft and it is another reason why Exeter is becoming the airport of choice in the south west.”
Neil Morris, spokesman for First Choice, said; “The based aircraft for Exeter from next summer will be an Airbus A320 with 180 seats and its operation from the airport will mean that 14 pilots, 35 cabin crew as well as an engineering team will operate from the airport. The move has come about because we believe that the management and staff of the airport display the kind of professionalism and expertise that we require and our passengers expect.”
Jeannette Linfoot, Product Director First Choice Holidays said: “First Choice are absolutely delighted to now offer year round holidays from Exeter, opening up three new routes to Corfu, Ibiza and Rhodes, in addition to our existing destinations including Lapland, Majorca, Portugal, Tenerife and Turkey, to name but a few. With Summer and Winter flights now available, this is a great opportunity for First Choice to offer more choice than ever before to its customers in the South West, with over 10,000 more Holidays now available from the region in Summer 2008.
