Nottingham East Midlands Airport

Categories: Airports in England | Transport in Leicestershire

Nottingham East Midlands Airport (IATA: EMA, ICAO: EGNX) is an airport in the East Midlands of England, near Castle Donington in Leicestershire. It lies between the cities of Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, all within a 30 mile radius of the airfield.

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History

The airport was originally a Royal Air Force station, RAF Castle Donington, which was decommissioned and purchased by a consortium of local government authorities in the early 1960s who renamed it East Midlands Airport to reflect the area it served. Effectively, it replaced the smaller Derby Airport at Burnaston, which was moved to a new site near Marston on Dove. The original Derby Airport site at Burnaston has since been redeveloped into a Toyota car factory.

Derby Airways, which was in the process of being renamed British Midland Airways, moved its operations to the new airport and established its headquarters in nearby Castle Donington, instantly establishing a network of domestic and international scheduled and charter flights at East Midlands. The airfield was established with basic requirements of a 5,850ft runway, 60ft taxiway, new hangar floor and aprons and parking for 850 cars. Financially it was not an instant success, however the picture quickly changed with the increased volume of freight traffic soon demanding further development. In 1970 agreement was reached on creating a new freight complex and both the runway and the terminal were extended.

Expansion was swift, with a further runway extension and terminal upgrade in the late 1970s. During 1985 one million passengers passed through the airport for the first time, calling for a yet another terminal extension. Following government legislation, the airport became a public limited company in 1987, distancing it from all-out control from the local authorities who owned it.

With growing passenger and freight, further expansion was proposed for East Midlands in 1992. However, despite the enthusiasm of the local authorities who owned the airport, the funds necessary were not raised, so in 1993 East Midlands became the first major regional airport in the UK to be privatised. National Express Group successfully purchased the airfield for £24.3m and began their investment into the airport facilities. A £20m, 600m extension to the runway was added to allow EMA to handle long haul flights, and a new air traffic control tower was constructed, the second highest in the UK. NatEx investment would eventually total over £77m over an 8 year period.

DHL Aviation opened a new £35m cargo facility on site in 2000, and in the same year a business park was constructed next to the airport. However, National Express Group announced its intention to concentrate on bus and rail provision, and sold East Midlands Airport, together with Bournemouth Airport, in March 2001 to Manchester Airport Group for £241m.

The arrival of low fares "no-frills" carriers in 2001 resulted in a sharp jump in passenger numbers, rising 7% in a year to 2.38m passengers annually. Go Fly established a hub at East Midlands, which has been retained and strengthened since the airline's absorption by easyJet, and the majority of bmi operations were ceded to a new low cost subsidiary, bmibaby, in 2002.

In a controversial move in 2004, East Midlands Airport was renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport, despite lying in Leicestershire and the nearest city being Derby. Furthermore, there was already Nottingham Airport, which is closer to Nottingham, despite being a small airfield catering for general aviation. The reasoning behind the name change was that many people from outside the UK and unfamiliar with the country's geography, could not identify with the term 'East Midlands' and understandably did not know exactly where in the UK it was. The argument for adding 'Nottingham' to the name was two-fold; firstly, Nottingham is the administrative 'capital' of the East Midlands region and secondly, the city had greater international recognition through its size and historical connections. This was theory was somewhat blown to pieces when the BBC's local news program East Midlands Today travelled to Amsterdam. Whilst there they asked locals the location of Nottingham on a map of the UK. The vast majority failed.

The airport is has excellent connections to the motorway network due to its proximity to the M1 and M42 motorways, bringing the airfield within easy reach of the major population centres of the midlands. However, access by train is not easy, the closest railway station being Long Eaton but the Airline Shuttle service links the airport directly to Loughborough railway station.

The train operator Midland Mainline is building a new railway station East Midlands Parkway closer to the airport, to which it will be linked by shuttle bus.

Nottingham East Midlands has established itself as a hub for low fares airlines easyJet, bmibaby and Ryanair, and serves a range of domestic and European short haul destinations. A major development towards the long haul programme came in 2005 with the introduction of holiday flights to the Dominican Republic, Orlando, and Cancun by the First Choice Airways.

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Airlines and destinations

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Holiday Airlines

In addition to the scheduled services listed above, a number of holiday companies operate exclusive charter flights from Nottingham East Midlands to a wide range of popular holiday destinations in France, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey. Long haul charter flights now serve North America, the Caribbean and Africa.

A number of airlines operate these flights from Nottingham, including Air Scandic, Britannia Airways, First Choice Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, and MyTravel Airways.

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Air Freight

Nottingham East Midlands Airport is the largest cargo airport in the United Kingdom after London Heathrow. DHL Aviation have a purpose built facility on site, and courier companies UPS and TNT also use the airport as a base. Lufthansa Cargo is also a regular user of Nottingham East Midlands, and the airport is a primary hub for Royal Mail.

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Accidents

On January 8, 1989, British Midland flight BD092 crashed on approach to East Midlands Airport, killing 47 people. The aircraft had developed a fire in one of the engines en route from Heathrow to Belfast. Though the decision was made to divert to East Midlands, the crew mistakenly shut down the functioning engine, causing the aircraft to lose power and crash on the M1 Motorway just short of the runway. Miraculously, no one on the ground was injured despite the aircraft crashing on one of the busiest sections of motorway in the UK. The Kegworth air disaster, as the incident became known, would lead to considerable improvements in aircraft safety and emergency instructions for passengers. The official report into the disaster made 31 safety recommendations.

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External links


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