A Brief History

RAF Castle Donington was decommissioned in the early 1960s and renamed East Midlands Airport to reflect the area it served. It replaced Derby Airport.

British Midland Airways, moved to the new airport and established a network of domestic and international scheduled and charter flights at East Midlands. Expansion was swift and during 1985 one million passengers passed through the airport for the first time.

With growing passenger and freight traffic, further expansion was proposed for East Midlands in 1992. However the funds necessary were not raised, so in 1993 East Midlands became the first regional airport in the UK to be privatised.

DHL Aviation opened a cargo facility on site in 2000, and in the same year a business park was constructed next to the airport.

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.

East Midlands Airport was renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport, despite lying in Leicestershire, having a Derby postcode and the nearest city being Derby!

Traffic

Nottingham East Midlands has established itself as a hub for low fare 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 Cancún by the First Choice Airways.

First Choice will further expand their long haul programme from NEMA by launching flights to Cuba. Airtours will also offer flights to Mombasa, Kenya with MyTravel Airways.