Not living near London is a bit of a pain when you’re going on holiday. Sure, Heathrow is the best connected airport in the world and Gatwick’s about to get a second runway, but none of that is very helpful if you live many, many hours away. East Midlands Airport (EMA) wants to solve that problem, at least for its locals.
The airport, which saw just over 4 million passengers in 2024, went through a refurbishment early last year which improved security and overall passenger experience, but its bosses aren’t content stopping there.
EMA’s bosses have revealed that they are ‘already’ in talks with multiple major airlines about expanding the destinations its passengers can reach. Adam Andrews, commercial director, said that he plans to ‘build relationships with key decision makers and businesses from our region and its large three big cities’, which are Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham, in order to discover ‘what they want from their local airport’ and ‘maximise [its] potential’.
He explained that this would ‘include looking to increase the mix of leisure destinations, introduce business routes and enable year-round connectivity to the world’. At present, many airlines only operate popular holiday routes during peak seasons at regional airports – EMA wants to buck this trend. There are currently 70 different destinations available from the hub across the year.
Passenger flights are only one half of the new strategy for the airport, which also wants to capitalise on its existing success as the UK’s ‘number one express air freight hub’.
East Midlands Airport recently came 16th out of 30 in the Telegraph’s list of the UK’s best airports, and 11th in Which?’s ranking. According to Which? its greatest downfall is passport queues, although other wait times including the newly refurbished security, are more positive. Perhaps a few new destinations and more money coming in from cargo planes will help nudge it into a coveted top 10 spot.
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