15 reviews
The story of this route goes back to the early 2010s, until March 2014 Flybe had a large presence and base at London Gatwick offering flights across the UK and parts of Europe, when they announced they were closing their London Gatwick base in 2013 and selling it off to easyJet.
Newquay and Cornwall isn't the best connected area of the UK to London and the long-distance trains in the UK have a bit of a "reputation" to put it politely. So a compromise was met and Newquay Airport and Cornwall Council was granted a Public Service Order (PSO) to ensure a London service would remain, Flybe would continue to serve London Gatwick with their Embraer ERJ-190 until March 2019, the service would then move to London Heathrow until the airline's demise in March 2020, all though the airline was going to reinstate the service to London Gatwick had they not ceased operations.
Once travel restrictions during the pandemic were eased for domestic travel, British Airways took on the Newquay PSO for just under a year flying on selected days, it didn't last however. Despite their connecting network potential via London Heathrow- the route was just too small for their Airbus A319/A320 fleet to sustain.
By 2022 though the Newquay-London route was picked up by a more suitable regional candidate in the form of Humberside-based Eastern Airways operating ATR 72-600 on the service 3x daily to London Gatwick. The route has been stable since as Eastern is the main operator on the Newquay-London route, but in 2024 a new challenger arrived in the form of Ryanair-UK operating Boeing 737-800 to Newquay from London Stansted, but like BA they don't offer the route daily unlike Eastern Airways.
I am keen to see how this plays out for Ryanair, however Eastern Airways doesn't seem to be shifting off the route to London Gatwick anytime soon, but I was keen to try this flight out having lost the chance to fly the route with Flybe and their Embraer ERJ-190, so how did it go???
After spending the day in Newquay town centre, I had to get back to the Airport, I was almost 2 1/2 hours early as any later buses would be cutting it too fine for my liking, you can easily get a bus from the town's central bus terminal and its a 30 minute bus ride over to the Newquay Airport out in the Cornish countryside.
I was so early that I witnessed the mid-day flight from Newquay to London Gatwick depart, it would return in 2 hours and take me back to London Gatwick on its last round trip of the day!
There was a thick and low cloud cover over Cornwall that day, it didn't take long for the departing ATR-72 to fade into the clouds.
The departure area for Newquay Airport- also known as Cornwall Airport or Newquay Cornwall Airport, is very small but they have made an effort to make the entrance look nice, however it goes without saying the exterior that welcomes you wasn't doing justice on a cloudy day like today. Had it been a nice summery day it would have looked the part a lot better!
There is a small bar and café area in the departure area before security you can wait at if you've come off a flight and are waiting on the bus or a lift into town as well as if you're a bit too early to go airside. I opted to enjoy a pack of crisps alongside a Cornish Ale!
My flight was the last departure of the day, after check in began following my chillout in the bar area- it was time for one last stop outside to take in the view the Airport entrance provides across some Cornwall fields and countryside before heading back in to pass through security, the security area didn't take long to pass through and I was all said and done within 5 minutes easily having opted to get through before the crowds for the last flight showed up!
A small plaque in the security area is displayed, personally I wonder why it was put at the security point and not in the public terminal area, though given it was some 30 years ago- the plaque might have been in a public area before the airport upgraded and extended its Terminal facility… To think the Duke of Cornwall in 1994 is now the current King of the United Kingdom & Commonwealth Nations, the current Duke of Cornwall is now his heir and future British Monarch Prince William.
There aren't many gates at Newquay Airport, and the largest regular airliners that fly here are Boeing 737-800 of Ryanair and Airbus A320 of easyJet, so this place likely gets really crowded if one of those flights are present. There was an Aer Lingus Regional ATR about to depart and that flight was boarding as I got airside, the only other people in the airside area were awaiting the same Eastern flight to Gatwick as I was.
It was at this stage we found our flight was going to be delayed by nearly an hour… I deliberated for about 30 seconds and came to the conclusion that a final pint of Cornish Ale was in order to wait out the delay whilst giving my phone a final charge up before getting onto the plane. I did quite like the Newquay Airport branded cup they gave my beer in!
There is a small airport lounge at Newquay Airport but I didn't try it out on this occasion, but maybe I'll sample it on a future visit if I come back! To think my local airport at Bournemouth is about the same size and yet doesn't have a lounge- but Newquay Airport does?
Eventually the boarding announcements were made and we were lined up and buzzed into two groups for boarding- those seated toward the front half of the plane being in one group to board first, then the people at the rear-aft of the plane getting on last, a sensible boarding method as you can only enter an ATR 72-600 from the rear door. I followed the plane into NQY from LGW on FR24 whilst wrapping up my drink before getting hustled into my zone ready for boarding the aircraft.
It was during boarding I found the weather in Cornwall had done a "complete 1-80" and was now basking in a beautiful evening sunset with most of the clouds having finally gone… absolutely typical of the English Weather, deciding to get bright and sunny as I was flying off to London Gatwick!
Our aircraft today was ATR 72-600 registered as G-IACY, one of the two ATR-72 in the Eastern fleet to wear the proper full livery of Eastern Airways as some of the fleet wear all-white liveries. This aircraft was delivered brand new to Eastern Airways in September 2017, for three years it operated charter services for Bristow Helicopters.
The cabin of this ATR 72 was almost identical to the Aer Lingus Regional ATR I flew the previous day, the seats were an identical dark grey/dark blue and slimline design and by the overhead air vents and electrical signs was the small blue mood lights. The airline provided the standard safety card as well as the Eastern Airways inflight magazine.
I took my place in Seat 12A, I found the legroom plentiful for me on this sub-1hr flight, but as with any regional turboprop aircraft- anyone over 6ft tall would probably not find this seat set up very comfortable.
The flight crew were keen to make up our delay and get back to Newquay Airport from London Gatwick, so once we were loaded and the crew got their slots at London Gatwick sorted out, we were powered up and commenced the short taxi across Newquay Airport for our departure across the South of England.
Newquay Airport is one of those regional UK Airports which isn't very busy when it comes to commercial airline flights, but it does offer a lot of general aviation activity including maintenance work on aircraft, a base for Cornwall's Air Sea Rescue as well as becoming the UK's Spaceport hub. The airport used to be an RAF Base (the airport is the former RAF St Mawgan) and you can see regular RAF activity as planes come here for training exercises.
When we finally took off, we lifted off into a beautiful evening over Newquay and Cornwall. Our scheduled departure should have been 16:45pm and we departed (according to FR24 app) at 17:45pm, running an hour behind. Despite this we'd only be 35 minutes later than scheduled arriving into London Gatwick.
We took off to the North-West heading out over the Celtic Sea, before making a right turn around Mawgan Porth before heading back inland towards the South of England and Crawley, Sussex.
Our route across the South of England would see us fly over Cornwall and Devon, we'd pass North of Plymouth and South of Exeter taking us briefly over the sea at Lyme Bay, crossing over land again we'd fly directly over my home town of Bournemouth before passing South of Hampshire, flying South of both Southampton & Portsmouth before heading inland during our descent into London Gatwick.
As we flew through the Skies over England, I picked up the Eastern magazine to see if there was something of interest inside. I found the Fleet & Route Map page which I thought was a perfect addition, even though Eastern Airways has now fully retired the Embraer ERJ-145 from its fleet. I also found on their Paris page (Eastern Airways serve Paris CDG from East Midlands & Southampton) an article on the French musician Serge Gainsbourg- a musician who's work I am quite fond of and intrigued by!
A basic, but free, inflight café service was offered with a choice of savoury or sweet snack with a choice of tea, water or coffee. I opted for a tea and shortbread, I went in on an open mind with this flight as I wasn't sure whether we'd get a complimentary or buy on board service, I was quite happy with this on a 45 minute flight!
The toilets on this ATR are pretty basic as well as being quite small & cramped, but again its unlikely many people would use this on such a short flight from Newquay to London.
Once we passed Southampton and Portsmouth we were starting our descent into London Gatwick, it was a quick descent and arrival for tonight as we were heading straight in for arrival onto Runway 09R, coming in from the West of London Gatwick. There was plenty of great views of the Crawley, Sussex countryside on arrival.
Arrival into London Gatwick was pretty straight forward. After arriving onto Runway 09R, we left the runway and taxied directly ahead towards the small gate area of the South Terminal which hosts the UK Domestic & Common Travel Area (CTA) arrivals: Gate Stands 1-5.
Disembarking was the same as boarding, we left via the aft door and made the short stroll into the South Terminal for domestic and CTA arrivals which was quick and seamless, I didn't need to hang around for luggage as I was flying solely on hand luggage only. I found myself dropped off by the BA check in area and decided to get a coffee before heading off to find my Coach back to Bournemouth.
The fares for this flight can vary quite a lot, especially during the height of the holidays (especially Summer & Xmas), I booked this flight as a one-way booking about four months before making this trip and it cost me £47.99 for the one-way flight + seat selection, which I don't think was too bad!
Overall a nice experience on this route from Eastern Airways, the only issue being the delay to the flight, but the crew were friendly, the service was ample for a 45-60 minute flight time and the plane was comfortable enough for this short commuter flight across the South of England. I think my ticket was a good enough price to having paid just over £45 one-way including seat selection.
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