Airport plans take-off with expansion programme

East Midlands Airport

East Midlands Airport (EMA) has submitted a planning application to expand its arrivals hall.

If approved, work could start this Spring in the hope that it will be ready for the busy summer season.

The new hall will have the capacity to house five more e-gates – the automated self-service barriers operated by the UK’s Border Force at immigration checkpoints in arrival halls.

Almost five million passengers fly to and from EMA each year whether to popular holiday resorts in Europe, for city breaks, business or winter snow-sports holidays. Two-thirds of EMA’s total passengers fly during the summer season between 1 April and 31 October. The months of July, August and September are the busiest, says the Airport.

In preparation for the summer season, renovation of the central apron (the area on which passenger aircraft park) will also take place this March. This is required to maintain the airport’s excellent performance for on-time departures for which EMA is ranked in the upper quartile of 20 benchmarked airports.

Growth of the airport’s cargo operation has been such that expansion of apron space has been brought forward five years. Widening the airport’s east apron, which is used by Fed Ex/TNT, UPS, Amazon and Royal Mail, will allow for up to four more aircraft to be parked at any one time. Also, at the east side of the airport, the first signs of UPS’s new £114m facility are emerging. This will double the size of the UPS operation at EMA.

Karen Smart, EMA’s managing director, said: “I’m delighted to announce plans have been submitted to improve the airport’s facilities. The demand for flights to and from the UK is forecast to grow and regional airports such as East Midlands are well-placed to absorb some of this capacity.

“My job is to ensure that EMA continues to prosper and remain fit for purpose for many years to come. With major infrastructure projects planned for this region such as HS2, which will provide the foundation for enhanced connectivity to and from this airport, EMA needs to be ready for increased demand. As our current cargo performance has shown, we can’t stand still, and we need to keep ahead of the game.”

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