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54-597: Exeter Airport ( IATA : EXT , ICAO : EGTE ), formerly Exeter International Airport , is an international airport located at Clyst Honiton in East Devon , close to the city of Exeter and within the county of Devon , South West England . 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 Europe . In 2007,

108-776: A 19% increase in passenger numbers during the month of August. During 2018, the runway was resurfaced and energy-efficient LED lighting (including runway centreline lights) was installed. In 2019, the airport was ranked fourth in the UK by Which? magazine of 30 airports for customer satisfaction, with a score of 73%. The following squadrons were also here at some point: The following units were also here at some point: The following airlines operate regular scheduled flights to and from Exeter: The ten busiest routes by air passenger numbers are listed below. [REDACTED] Media related to Exeter International Airport at Wikimedia Commons IATA airport code The assignment of these codes

162-567: A new airport is built, replacing the old one, leaving the city's new "major" airport (or the only remaining airport) code to no longer correspond with the city's name. The original airport in Nashville, Tennessee, was built in 1936 as part of the Works Progress Administration and called Berry Field with the designation, BNA. A new facility known as Nashville International Airport was built in 1987 but still uses BNA. This

216-667: 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

270-509: Is GSN and its IATA code is SPN, and some coincide with IATA codes of non-U.S. airports. Canada's unusual codes—which bear little to no similarity with any conventional abbreviation to the city's name—such as YUL in Montréal , and YYZ in Toronto , originated from the two-letter codes used to identify weather reporting stations in the 1930s. The letters preceding the two-letter code follow

324-617: Is available. However, many railway administrations have their own list of codes for their stations, such as the list of Amtrak station codes . Airport codes arose out of the convenience that the practice brought pilots for location identification in the 1930s. Initially, pilots in the United States used the two-letter code from the National Weather Service (NWS) for identifying cities. This system became unmanageable for cities and towns without an NWS identifier, and

378-523: Is different from the name in English, yet the airport code represents only the English name. Examples include: Due to scarcity of codes, some airports are given codes with letters not found in their names: The use of 'X' as a filler letter is a practice to create three-letter identifiers when more straightforward options were unavailable: Some airports in the United States retained their NWS ( National Weather Service ) codes and simply appended an X at

432-671: Is governed by IATA Resolution 763, and it is administered by the IATA's headquarters in Montreal , Canada. The codes are published semi-annually in the IATA Airline Coding Directory. IATA provides codes for airport handling entities, and for certain railway stations. Alphabetical lists of airports sorted by IATA code are available. A list of railway station codes , shared in agreements between airlines and rail lines such as Amtrak , SNCF , and Deutsche Bahn ,

486-513: Is in conjunction to rules aimed to avoid confusion that seem to apply in the United States, which state that "the first and second letters or second and third letters of an identifier may not be duplicated with less than 200 nautical miles separation." Thus, Washington, D.C. area's three airports all have radically different codes: IAD for Washington–Dulles , DCA for Washington–Reagan (District of Columbia Airport), and BWI for Baltimore (Baltimore–Washington International, formerly BAL). Since HOU

540-543: Is not followed outside the United States: In addition, since three letter codes starting with Q are widely used in radio communication, cities whose name begins with "Q" also had to find alternate codes, as in the case of: IATA codes should not be confused with the FAA identifiers of U.S. airports. Most FAA identifiers agree with the corresponding IATA codes, but some do not, such as Saipan , whose FAA identifier

594-416: Is used for William P. Hobby Airport , the new Houston–Intercontinental became IAH. The code BKK was originally assigned to Bangkok–Don Mueang and was later transferred to Suvarnabhumi Airport , while the former adopted DMK. The code ISK was originally assigned to Gandhinagar Airport (Nashik's old airport) and later on transferred to Ozar Airport (Nashik's current airport). Shanghai–Hongqiao retained

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648-415: The 435th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Welford was assigned, and command headquarters were moved to Grantham Lodge. RAF Ramsbury , RAF Aldermaston , and RAF Greenham Common also became available as landing areas for tactical training with the 101st Airborne Division and later became troop carrier bases. Its first wing, the 50th Troop Carrier Wing , became operational on 17 October 1943. A second wing,

702-594: The 52d Troop Carrier Wing , arrived from Sicily on 17 February 1944. Its five groups had participated in the large airborne assault during Operation Husky , the Allied invasion of Sicily and had flown combat jumps on a smaller scale in Italy. On 11 March 1944 the final troop carrier wing assigned to the command, the 53rd Troop Carrier Wing , arrived from the United States along with five groups that had just completed their operational training. The wings were realigned to provide

756-613: 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. Two brass plaques on the wall near the airport's observation lounge commemorate the activities of 3 squadrons of

810-571: The Canadian transcontinental railroads were built, each station was assigned its own two-letter Morse code : When the Canadian government established airports, it used the existing railway codes for them as well. If the airport had a weather station, authorities added a "Y" to the front of the code, meaning "Yes" to indicate it had a weather station or some other letter to indicate it did not. When international codes were created in cooperation with

864-708: The Douglas C-47 Skytrain and its variant, the Douglas C-53 Skytrooper , but in 1945 the command equipped one group with 117 Curtiss C-46 Commando aircraft to determine their viability in the RTO. As a result of a 28 percent loss rate during Operation Varsity resulting from the C-46 being prone to catching fire, The command did not convert to the Commando, even though its cargo-carrying capacity

918-651: The Polish Air Forces in France and Great Britain that were based at Exeter during World War II, and commend their actions in defence of the city of Exeter. RAF Exeter was home to the following Squadrons of No 10 Group during the Battle of Britain: Despite efforts at camouflage, including painting the runways, Exeter attracted the Luftwaffe and administrative and technical buildings were destroyed. Exeter met

972-538: The 52nd assigned to support British airborne operations. The command carried out extensive formation training for Operation Varsity , an airborne assault across the Rhine River , and executed it on 24 March 1945, delivering the 17th Airborne Division . The groups of the 52nd Wing based in France returned to England to carry the British 6th Airborne Division in the assault. IX Troop Carrier Command transferred from

1026-618: The 53rd, tasked as the primary unit for glider operations, with the four groups already operational in February 1944 (434th through 437th), while the least experienced groups were assigned to the 50th Wing. The command grew to a total of 14 groups in April 1944 when the 315th was taken off transport duties in the Mediterranean and assigned two additional squadrons to bring it up to full table of organization and equipment strength, and when

1080-560: The COVID-19 pandemic. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Exeter Airport's passenger numbers have recovered to approximately 500,000 per year (as of 2024). Exeter Airport is located 4 miles (6.4 km) east of the city of Exeter and is approximately 170 miles (270 km) west 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

1134-508: The Exeter Aero Club. The airfield officially opened on 31 May 1937 and operated from a "tented" terminal before the permanent buildings were complete. Jersey Airways 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. In World War II, RAF Exeter was an important RAF Fighter Command airfield during

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1188-901: The German counter-offensive in the Ardennes in December 1944. All U.S. tactical air support units in Great Britain were consolidated into Ninth Air Force on 16 October 1943, under the command of Maj. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton . At the same time the IX Troop Carrier Command was activated, having been constituted by USAAF Headquarters five days before its headquarters transferred to Grantham Lodge where it remained until 20 September 1944, when it transferred to Ascot, Berkshire , its final location in Europe. Its first headquarters

1242-470: The U.S. For example, several airports in Alaska have scheduled commercial service, such as Stebbins and Nanwalek , which use FAA codes instead of ICAO codes. Thus, neither system completely includes all airports with scheduled service. Some airports are identified in colloquial speech by their IATA code. Examples include LAX and JFK . IX Troop Carrier Command The IX Troop Carrier Command

1296-541: The United Kingdom to the United States without equipment or personnel on 5 September 1945 to Stout Field , Indiana, where it took over the personnel and equipment of I Troop Carrier Command along with the command of troop carrier units in the United stares. On 1 February 1946 command headquarters moved to Greenville Army Air Base , South Carolina, in preparation for inactivation, which took place 31 March 1946, when

1350-481: The United States, because "Y" was seldom used in the United States, Canada simply used the weather station codes for its airports, changing the "Y" to a "Z" if it conflicted with an airport code already in use. The result is that most major Canadian airport codes start with "Y" followed by two letters in the city's name (for example, YOW for O tta w a , YWG for W innipe g , YYC for C algar y , or YVR for V ancouve r ), whereas other Canadian airports append

1404-405: 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

1458-479: The airport handled over 1 million passengers per year for the first time, although passenger throughput subsequently declined, recovering to 931,000 passengers in 2018. In 2019, passenger numbers once again passed the 1 million mark, due in part to Ryanair operating several new flights to/from the airport. Prior to its collapse in 2020, the airline Flybe accounted for over 80% of the airport's passenger numbers. Passenger numbers declined sharply to 148,000 in 2020 due to

1512-440: The airport itself instead of the city it serves, while another code is reserved which refers to the city itself which can be used to search for flights to any of its airports. For instance: Or using a code for the city in one of the major airports and then assigning another code to another airport: When different cities with the same name each have an airport, they need to be assigned different codes. Examples include: Sometimes,

1566-489: The airport was bought by the Patriot Aerospace division of Rigby Group , which also owns Coventry Airport . In August 2016, Exeter Airport recorded their highest passenger throughput in a single month since September 2008, with 100,374 passengers passing through its terminal. New services to Glasgow and the first route to be supported by the new Government Regional Air Connectivity fund to Norwich, contributed to

1620-418: The airport's former name, such as Orlando International Airport 's MCO (for Mc C o y Air Force Base), or Chicago's O'Hare International Airport , which is coded ORD for its original name: Or char d Field. In rare cases, the code comes from the airport's unofficial name, such as Kahului Airport 's OGG (for local aviation pioneer Jimmy H ogg ). In large metropolitan areas, airport codes are often named after

1674-439: The beginning of March but had virtually no troop experience until mid-May, when they began a series of mock night operations to raise their level of training. Both the 315th and 442nd groups continued formation training until the end of May. Five groups also conducted training in night glider assaults during both April and May. By 1 June the command had approximately 1,200 C-47s and 1,400 gliders assigned, and 950 crews for each. At

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1728-502: The code SHA, while the newer Shanghai–Pudong adopted PVG. The opposite was true for Berlin : the airport Berlin–Tegel used the code TXL, while its smaller counterpart Berlin–Schönefeld used SXF; the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has the airport code BER, which is also part of its branding. The airports of Hamburg (HAM) and Hannover (HAJ) are less than 100 nautical miles (190 km) apart and therefore share

1782-687: The command was attached to the First Allied Airborne Army , which from 17–25 September 1944, landed both American divisions, the British 1st Airborne Division , and the Polish 1st Independent Parachute Brigade in the Netherlands during Operation Market Garden . The 50th Wing moved to bases in France in September as well. In February and March 1945 the 52d and 53rd wings also deployed to bases in France, except for two groups of

1836-619: The end of February 1944, using equipment and personnel from the 52nd Wing, the command established a training unit for airborne division pathfinders and the aircrews that would deliver them. The Command Pathfinder School was redesignated the 1st Pathfinder Group (Provisional) in August 1944. IX Troop Carrier Command delivered both the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions in the American airborne landings in Normandy on 6–7 June 1944. In August

1890-934: The end. Examples include: A lot of minor airfields without scheduled passenger traffic have ICAO codes but not IATA codes, since the four letter codes allow more number of codes, and IATA codes are mainly used for passenger services such as tickets, and ICAO codes by pilots. In the US, such airfields use FAA codes instead of ICAO. There are airports with scheduled service for which there are ICAO codes but not IATA codes, such as Nkhotakota Airport/Tangole Airport in Malawi or Chōfu Airport in Tokyo, Japan. There are also several minor airports in Russia (e.g., Omsukchan Airport ) which lack IATA codes and instead use internal Russian codes for booking. Flights to these airports cannot be booked through

1944-557: The first three letters of the city in which it is located, for instance: The code may also be a combination of the letters in its name, such as: Sometimes the airport code reflects pronunciation, rather than spelling, namely: For many reasons, some airport codes do not fit the normal scheme described above. Some airports, for example, cross several municipalities or regions, and therefore, use codes derived from some of their letters, resulting in: Other airports—particularly those serving cities with multiple airports—have codes derived from

1998-478: The following format: Most large airports in Canada have codes that begin with the letter "Y", although not all "Y" codes are Canadian (for example, YUM for Yuma, Arizona , and YNT for Yantai , China), and not all Canadian airports start with the letter "Y" (for example, ZBF for Bathurst, New Brunswick ). Many Canadian airports have a code that starts with W, X or Z, but none of these are major airports. When

2052-597: The form of " YYZ ", a song by the rock band Rush , which utilizes the Morse code signal as a musical motif. Some airports have started using their IATA codes as brand names , such as Calgary International Airport (YYC) and Vancouver International Airport (YVR). Numerous New Zealand airports use codes that contain the letter Z, to distinguish them from similar airport names in other countries. Examples include HLZ for Hamilton , ZQN for Queenstown , and WSZ for Westport . Predominantly, airport codes are named after

2106-718: The group's aircraft and squadrons were on detached service in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations). On 1 October 1943 the 434th Troop Carrier Group became part of the provisional command and was the only group assigned. Twelve airfields were designated for the new command, each to house 40 C-47s and a like number of gliders: RAF Fulbeck , RAF Langar , RAF Bottesford , RAF Wakerley , RAF Balderton , RAF North Witham , RAF Barkston Heath , RAF Cottesmore, RAF North Luffenham , RAF Saltby , RAF Folkingham , and RAF Woolfox Lodge . In October, 1943, Brigadier General Benjamin F. Giles became commanding officer. In November

2160-487: The international air booking systems or have international luggage transferred there, and thus, they are booked instead through the airline or a domestic booking system. Several heliports in Greenland have 3-letter codes used internally which might be IATA codes for airports in faraway countries. There are several airports with scheduled service that have not been assigned ICAO codes that do have IATA codes, especially in

2214-508: The last of the air echelon left Exeter two days later. 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

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2268-612: The name of the airport itself, for instance: This is also true with some cities with a single airport (even if there is more than one airport in the metropolitan area of said city), such as BDL for Hartford, Connecticut 's B ra dl ey International Airport or Baltimore's BWI, for B altimore/ W ashington I nternational Airport ; however, the latter also serves Washington, D.C. , alongside Dulles International Airport (IAD, for I nternational A irport D ulles) and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA, for D istrict of C olumbia A irport). The code also sometimes comes from

2322-533: The newly created 442d Troop Carrier Group arrived from the United States. These groups went into training for Operation Overlord , the invasion of France, as they arrived in Britain. The groups of the 50th and 52nd Wings began intensive night formation training that included practice jumps with the airborne divisions assigned to them, which continued through April, when the division commanders decided to stop further unit jump training. The 53rd Wing began training at

2376-416: The one they are located in: Other airport codes are of obscure origin, and each has its own peculiarities: In Asia, codes that do not correspond with their city's names include Niigata 's KIJ , Nanchang 's KHN and Pyongyang 's FNJ . EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg , which serves three countries, has three airport codes: BSL, MLH, EAP. Some cities have a name in their respective language which

2430-467: 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. The 440th Troop Carrier Group arrived on 15 April 1944 which consisted of the: 95th Troop Carrier Squadron (TCS), 96th TCS, 97th TCS & 98th TCS, with over 70 Douglas C-47 Skytrain / Douglas C-53 Skytrooper aircraft. There were insufficient hardstandings to accommodate all

2484-506: The same first and middle letters, indicating that this rule might be followed only in Germany. Many cities retain historical names in their airport codes, even after having undergone an official name/spelling/transliteration change: Some airport codes are based on previous names associated with a present airport, often with a military heritage. These include: Some airports are named for an administrative division or nearby city, rather than

2538-500: The station code of Malton, Mississauga , where it is located). YUL is used for Montréal–Trudeau (UL was the ID code for the beacon in the city of Kirkland , now the location of Montréal–Trudeau). While these codes make it difficult for the public to associate them with a particular Canadian city, some codes have become popular in usage despite their cryptic nature, particularly at the largest airports. Toronto's code has entered pop culture in

2592-515: The two-letter code of the radio beacons that were the closest to the actual airport, such as YQX in Gander or YXS in Prince George . Four of the ten provincial capital airports in Canada have ended up with codes beginning with YY, including: Canada's largest airport is YYZ for Toronto Pearson (as YTZ was already allocated to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport , the airport was given

2646-529: The use of two letters allowed only a few hundred combinations; a three-letter system of airport codes was implemented. This system allowed for 17,576 permutations, assuming all letters can be used in conjunction with each other. Since the U.S. Navy reserved "N" codes, and to prevent confusion with Federal Communications Commission broadcast call signs , which begin with "W" or "K", the airports of certain U.S. cities whose name begins with one of these letters had to adopt "irregular" airport codes: This practice

2700-494: The west, just 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away. The M5 enables links to Bristol and the Midlands. There is no railway station at the airport. The closest, Cranbrook , is 2.2 miles (3.5 km) miles away by road. There is also a bus link to Exeter St Davids railway station . Exeter Airport was situated on land acquired by Exeter Corporation by compulsory purchase. It was leased and operated by Straight Corporation who also set up

2754-634: Was a United States Army Air Forces unit. Its last assignment was with the Ninth Air Force , based at Greenville Army Air Base , South Carolina . It was inactivated on 31 March 1946 as a component command of the Ninth Air Force , based in the United Kingdom . The mission of IX Troop Carrier Command was air transport for the Allied airborne forces in the European Theater of Operations (ETO). The main aircraft of command were

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2808-470: Was located at RAF Cottesmore , where it took control of a provisional headquarters established by the Eighth Air Force in September. The command's original cadre came from Headquarters, 1st Troop Carrier Command (Provisional) established as a provisional headquarters by the Eighth Air Force in September with six officers and three aircraft of the 315th Troop Carrier Group (the remainder of

2862-509: Was opened in the early 1980s, and various other improvements, including a runway extension, were carried out over the following years to establish Exeter as an important airport in the West Country . Exeter was a joint RAF/civil airfield in the 1960s. 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,

2916-624: Was twice that of the C-47. The command also had 1,922 CG-4A Waco and 20 Waco CG-13 gliders just prior to its last big operation in March 1945. IX Troop Carrier Command consisted of three troop carrier wings, 14 troop carrier groups, and one pathfinder group, about 1,380 operational aircraft including spares, and 2,000 gliders at its maximum strength in March 1945. IX Troop Carrier Command conducted three multi-divisional combat air assaults The command conducted relief operations for isolated units during

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