KLM adds its 18th UK airport as it launches flights from Exeter

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• BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:

  11 Dec11 December 03:51

  Durham?

  No such airport. It’s name is Teesside

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    12 Dec12 December 13:16

    still not corrected 😢

    • Rob says:

      12 Dec12 December 13:30

      Cut and paste from the list KLM provided – speak to them!

• Dubious says:

  11 Dec11 December 05:06

  I think it is worth mentioning that KLM) and Air France) have an agreement with Thalys Eurostar to provide free onward rail connections from their respective hubs.

  You can access quite a bit of Western Europe on a through ticket.

  • jj says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:33

    That’s a great thing to do. If only BA did the same

  • CJD says:

    11 Dec11 December 20:59

    Yeah I’ve noticed this when searching Google Flights for the best way to get to Antwerp. Top result was a KLM flight followed by an hour by train from Schiphol to Antwerp.

    It’s a shame KLM don’t really have a credit card presence in the UK save for Amex reward points; I think I’d be all over a Flying Blue branded card if such a thing existed.

    • Kpworldtravels says:

      11 Dec11 December 21:12

      You can covert your amex points to flying blue. Whats stopping you?

      • CJD says:

        12 Dec12 December 09:42

        I don’t currently have a MR earning card.

• Stuart says:

  11 Dec11 December 05:33

  Nice to see another regional airport get the KL service. I’ve taken the SOU-AMS and transited onwards often and much prefer tiny quiet SOU with Parkway station against trekking up to LHR via trains and tubes for long hauls.

• david says:

  11 Dec11 December 06:21

  😀 British Airways! 😀 Should be Klearly Leading Movement.

• Jonty says:

  11 Dec11 December 07:38

  Is booking exeter (or any other regional Uk airport) to amstey on points usually a better deal through flying blue or virgin?

  • dundj says:

    11 Dec11 December 07:57

    Depends, Virgin likely the majority of the time, Flying Blue if it is available during the monthly offer of 25% to 50% off miles (note usually during the 6 months including the month the offer starts, and not guaranteed from the starting airport unless flying long haul).

• captaindave says:

  11 Dec11 December 08:27

  Good news for me ! I love that little airport, but obviously limited on destinations ( direct anyway) EX -AMS-BKK will most probably be the way to go next time I visit family in Thailand…
  Is it easy to redeem virgin points on KLM ? If so , might be a reason to carry on collecting them….

  • Metty says:

    11 Dec11 December 08:48

    Occasional bug with Virgin booking engine but yes it’s very easy to book KL – to AMS at least – with Virgin points.

    • captaindave says:

      11 Dec11 December 08:53

      Thanks Metty

• Paul says:

  11 Dec11 December 10:09

  I think BA must kick themselves that they never did the deal with KLM back in the day and allowed them to join up with Air France. BA has consequently ignored almost the entire country focusing on being London Airways. That might be a good business decision for BA but had they joined with KLM then all the traffic from now 18 UK airports would still be in one world, not sky team, and consequently the One world and Avios Brands at least would have a far greater base than it does today in the UK. The link with IB did open up South America but IB don’t have the presence in the UK beyond London, that KLM do.

  • Bervios says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:21

    Using your rationale, then should KLM rebrand to Amsterdam Airways?

    • Charlieface says:

      11 Dec11 December 21:01

      No, but rebranding as British Airways might be an idea 🙂

      The fact is KLM is far more relevant than BA is for anything north of Birmingham or west of Swindon, they have more UK airports connected to their hub than any other airline. Both Air France and Aer Lingus had more than BA when I last counted.

  • dundj says:

    11 Dec11 December 12:36

    Used to be flights to Liverpool and Dundee in the past as well.

  • Londonsteve says:

    11 Dec11 December 13:13

    There’s certainly this, but if LHR wasn’t so slot constrained BA could offer domestic flights to many of these airports while those nearer to London could have a deal with National Rail to enable through ticketing for free or a fixed attractive additional price. With neither of these available, BA will continue to bleed away regional traffic to KLM and I can’t see this situation changing in the years ahead.

  • Nick says:

    11 Dec11 December 13:16

    IAG is stronger as a group than it would have been with KLM instead. It’s not a political entity with a social mission to serve the UK regions, it’s a business that wants to make money. LHR and AMS are too close together and there isn’t enough separation in markets for that to be a smarter idea than BA and IB were.

  • Alex says:

    11 Dec11 December 14:10

    At one time both KLM and Transavia used to operate LGW-AMS.

• Ned Bartrolley says:

  11 Dec11 December 10:20

  The timings are really naff, the daily flight doesn’t arrive in AMS until 19.50 and you are going to miss the bulk of the KLM short and longhaul schedules.

  • Michael says:

    11 Dec11 December 11:28

    BHD was like that until recently – one daily rotation at 4pm so not great for inbound or outbound TATL connections and very tight for Europe.

    We’re now graced with a second rotation daily – a night stopper – which has helped immensely. It also tends to be an on pier departure rather than coach to Emby-farm.

  • apbj says:

    11 Dec11 December 13:45

    True about the timings, but it still works for the (generally eastbound and southbound) late departures and the evening bank of short-haul connections. That could be handier for many than trekking up to LHR. Can also mix and match of course, with Delta/Virgin.

  • Jonty says:

    11 Dec11 December 17:16

    …but brilliant for a long weekend

  • Devon Diamond says:

    11 Dec11 December 22:18

    If you live near Exeter and want to travel west you’d take the morning flight to Dublin anyway

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