Airport plans to expand
EAST Midlands Airport (EMA) has submitted a planning application to expand its arrivals hall which, if approved, could be ready for the busy summer season.
The new hall will have the capacity to house five more e-gates - automated selfservice barriers operated by the UK’s Border Force at immigration checkpoints in arrival halls, and will be bigger, which airport chiefs say will create a more pleasant environment for passengers waiting to have their passports checked. It is hoped work could start this spring. Almost five million passengers fly to and from East Midlands each year, with two-thirds of EMA’s total passengers flying during the summer season between April 1 and October 31. The months of July, August and September are the busiest.
Also, in preparation for the summer season, renovation of the central apron - the area on which passenger aircraft park - will take place this March.
A spokesperson said: “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.
Further investment this year at EMA includes four new fire engines, a new fleet of airfield security and operational vehicles, replacing the remaining halogen airfield lights with LEDs to save money and energy, and installation of new weather stations to help reduce icerelated disruption.
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 wellplaced 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.”
EMA has made a strong start to the New Year with passenger numbers up on the same time last year, as it recorded a 1.2 per cent increase on January 2018 with just under 216,000 passengers flying to and from the airport.
While many UK airports reported a fall in cargo volumes at the start of 2019, EMA bucked the downward trend, its throughput rising by 2.28 per cent compared with January last year.
The period from February 2018 to January 2019 recorded the highest ever tonnage (365,158) in the history of the airport on a rolling 12-month basis.