East Midlands Airport

East Midlands Airport represents an international facility that can be found in the East Midlands close to the Castle Donington located in northwestern Leicestershire. The airfield was initially built to serve as a Royal Air Force station and was referred to at the time as RAF Castle Donington before being reconstructed as a civilian facility in 1965.

East Midlands Airport

East Midlands Airport represents an international facility that can be found in the East Midlands close to the Castle Donington located in northwestern Leicestershire. The airfield was initially built to serve as a Royal Air Force station and was referred to at the time as RAF Castle Donington before being reconstructed as a civilian facility in 1965.

EMA has established itself as a hub for low-fare airlines such as Ryanair and Jet2.com and tour operators like TUI Airways, which serves a range of European as well as domestic short-haul destinations. It also serves as a base for Loganair. The number of passengers peaked in 2008 at 5.6 million. As a major air cargo hub, EMA was the second-busiest airport in the U.K. for freight traffic in 2016.

The property is owned by the Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which currently represents the largest British-owned airport operator and is controlled by the ten metropolitan borough councils of Greater Manchester.

RAF Castle Donington

RAF Castle Donington was initially opened as a Royal Air Force station in 1943. The airfield was equipped with tho hangars, three concrete runways, and served as a satellite airfield to RAF Wymeswold, located some 9 miles (14 km) to the south-east. Initially, the airport was used by 28 Operational Training Unit, training RAF Bomber Command teams on the Vickers Wellington, and then by 108 Operational Training Unit, later renamed 1382 Transport Conversion Unit, training RAF Transport Command teams on the Douglas Dakota. The airfield stopped operations, and the air force station was decommissioned in 1946.

East Midlands Airport

In 1964, the locality of the former RAF station was bought by a consortium of local government authorities, when a major program of construction works and runway investment started. To reflect the area it was serving, The airfield was renamed East Midlands Airport, and it opened for passengers in April 1965. Until 1982, when the head department moved to Donington Hall, British Midland had its head department on the facility property. BMI also had its maintenance center at the airport. In 2004 the facility was controversially renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport. However, the name change did not last long, and soon the airport was renamed to East Midlands Airport. A significant development towards the long-haul program came in 2005 with the start of holiday flights to the Dominican Republic, Cancún, and Orlando by First Choice Airways. Following growing overcrowding at the terminal, the airport facilities were remodeled and extended. EasyJet stopped operating from the airport on 5 January 2010.

Only on 3 May 2012, it was announced that Bmibaby would shut down and cease all actions in September 2012, with a few services being dropped from June. The parent agency, International Airlines Group, cited significant losses and the failure to find a proper buyer as the reasons for the decision. Consequently, Flybe and Monarch Airlines declared they were going to establish a base at the facility, and at the same time, low-cost airline Jet2.com confirmed they would also extend their operations from the facility, with an additional aircraft and new routes from summer 2013. Monarch Airlines closed its base at East Midlands as well by spring 2015. Ryanair expanded its base with a series of new routes and frequency raises on existing routes. It now serves the airport with nine based aircraft, 41 destinations with over 320 weekly flights, and about 2.3 million passengers a year, making it the largest airline at the airport.