New Daily Coach Links to Exeter Airport

Catching a flight to and from the South West could be about to get easier as the Stagecoach group announce a new daily transport link to Exeter Airport.

The new link, from Stagecoach’s megabusplus services, will see all four of its routes to and from the Honiton rail hub stop at Exeter Airport from this week.

The group say that the new service will provide a ‘seamless link’ between London and the West Country by using a combination of their megabus.com buses as well as the rail links at Honiton.

Managing Director of Stagecoach UK Coach, Elizabeth Esnouf said: “Bookings for the new services are going well and we're delighted to be expanding the coach offering even further by serving the airport every day of the week.

“With this new addition to the timetable, we're offering local people a new airport link at great value prices and we look forward to seeing even more people taking advantage of our greener, smarter services.”

Plans for the service were initially drawn up last month to help alleviate the transport pressures caused by the destruction of the Dawlish line in February which cut off rail transport to most of the South West peninsula.

However with the line set to re-open in just over two weeks on April 4th, the overall benefits new service are likely to see the link remain for the foreseeable future.

Earlier this month, Stagecoach, which operates around 330 buses across the south-west of England, announced discounts on single and return fares on key routes in Devon of up to 50%.

The company has also extended the travel zones covered by its multi-journey tickets to include areas affected by rail disruption; Stagecoach also confirmed that it is accepting First Great Western rail tickets on its bus journeys between Dawlish and Teignmouth while rail services remain disrupted.

The new service hopes to build on this success with services calling 15 times a day at the airport on weekdays as well as offering some more limited weekend links.

Services heading towards London will serve the airport just before arriving at Honiton and services from London will stop at the airport immediately after leaving Honiton.

Matt Roach, Exeter Airport’s managing director welcomed the news, he said:  “We are very pleased to be able to play a part and offer greater connectivity to travellers in the South West Peninsula from and to Barnstaple, Bude, Cullompton, Penzance and Plymouth via Torbay and Newton Abbot."

There are four coach routes to and from Honiton:

- Okehampton - Bude
- Collumpton - Tiverton - Barnstaple
- Newton Abbot - Torquay - Paignton - Totnes - Plymouth
- Launceston - Bodmin - St Austell - Truro - Penzance