It sounds like a tongue twister and you could almost write a quiz question for it: it is in Leicestershire, but closer to Derby, however yesterday the East Midlands airport was renamed Nottingham East MidlandsAirport.
As you can imagine this has been met with uproar from councillors and residents of both Derbyshire and Leicestershire who feel that it undermines the fact that the airport serves the whole region.
The airport is currently owned by the Manchester Airport Group who purchased it three years ago (along with Bournemouth airport) for £241 Million. Its almost continual development over the last thirty or so years has seen it transformed from a struggling financial operation into a big player in its market, not only serving the likes of low cost airlinesBMI Baby
and Go but is also now widely recognised as the largest pure cargo airport in Britain.
The obvious plus sign for the airport is that it not only borders three counties but is also situated centrally in the UK. It is also helped by being so close to the M1, and getting to the airport has been massively improved by road development over the past few years. There are a vast amount of parking spaces but as expected the tariffs are fairly high. You have the option of short, medium or long stay, with the option to book the later two. The biggest problem though is that if you want to steer clear of the parking costs you are not over whelmed with other options. There is no train station on the site and taxis from the closest (Loughborough, Long Eaton and Derby) will not be cheap. There are buses that run from the stations and the major towns and cities but no one feels like lugging their luggage on and off buses before going on trip. There is not an official on site hotel but several close by, including a travel lodge that sleeps four from £40 a night. Personally I’ve never stayed there but I expect it to be run to the decent level of the rest of the chain that I’ve used up and down the country and never had cause for complaint.
If you are more used to large airports you will notice the size difference when you arrive. Although a lot smaller than the likes of Manchester, Heathrow, etc I always feel more relaxed when flying from here. Everything is well sign posted and the airport always seems calmer and much less busier than those mentioned above. There are not a lot of check-in desks but they are sufficient for the volume of passengers that go through. This makes the whole process much easier, as well as finding your way around. The staff are very helpful and knowledgeable, again I believe the size of the airport helps.
For its size it has several decent cafes and food courts, expensive as you’d expect but on par with other airports. The same can also be said of the shops in the departure lounge, nothing special but enough to waste the time waiting around.
From the moment you enter the facility, it is apparent that disabled people are well catered for with help and equipment available on request, as well as facilities such as automatic doors.
From my views above I think you should get the picture of a well run airport, so surely the name change doesn’t matter, after all it will still the be the same terminal, check in desks, etc. Well to some in does. As already mentioned, the news has not been well received in the Derbyshire and Leicestershire. I can understand where these people are coming from but perhaps they are more worried about their ‘home counties’ image than the success of the airport. Managers at the airport have defended their decision to change the name by saying that (from research) they have found that Nottingham is much easily recognisable to foreigners than the name East Midlands. I wouldn’t disagree, as I’m from down South and before I moved to Derby I knew a lot more about Nottingham than Derby and Leicester put together so I believe this would reflect on the rest of Europe.
Now admittedly although I’m a resident of Derby I don’t feel the passion of the locals but surely they must see that the research is factual and that they must not let their feelings of township rivalry get the better of them. The owners of the airport are trying to make as substantial profit as possible and therefore obviously feel that this will be a move forward. If the airport (regardless of name) continues to grow the whole of the local economy will benefit, which can only be a good thing. The name of the airport is actually irrelevant so long as it continues to be a success bringing in tourism and jobs. I had to laugh at one lady on the TV last night who claimed the airport name was familiar to locals and therefore the change would only benefit strangers…doh!…that’s the whole point love, in arguing against it she actually gave the reason it has been given the go ahead!! Locals still know of it yet the marketing should be made simpler as potential users will supposedly recognise Nottingham more than they do the East Midlands. When advertised abroad the likes of Heathrow and Gatwick are referred to as ‘London Heathrow’ and ‘London Gatwick’ for exactly the same reason. It works.
I hope that the new name does make a significant impact on business and that this has a knock on effect to the whole of the region, after all the East Midlands has been kept and it would have been worse if it was solely named Nottingham Airport. Overall I cannot recommend it enough, I have never had any problems or delays there and the site is clean and well designed, and it is apparent how far the place must have come in the last thirty years. Now serving the likes of Go and BMI (low cost airlines) it is definitely one to consider using when booking your summer holidays.
For more information you can look at www.eastmidlandsairport.com which I’m sure will incorporate the new name at some point in the URL, although graphics and text have already been changed on the site.
Ive never been to this airport, but you never know...too bad they don't have a train to get there...and about the size, it can't be smaller than the one we have in my city, with only one gate. And the funny thing is that they always call passengers in both Spanish and English and indicate them to go to gate number 1... "Passengers on flight IB195 to Barcelona please proceed to gate number 1" hahahaha weird! BR
Jami74 06.02.2004 22:37
If we lived closer to it then I'm sure we'd use it.
madcowuk 31.01.2004 00:11
Good review. why can't people just leave things as they are, I was born in Leicester but now live in Derby and the airport is nowhere near notts, I can't see that changing it to Nottingham east midlands will change people knowing where exactly it is. It will always be East midlands airport forget the Nottingham
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