East Midlands Airport

About East Midlands Airport

East Midlands Airport (IATA: EMA, ICAO: EGNX) stands at Castle Donington in Leicestershire, roughly midway between Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. The UK aeronautical information publication places it about 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Derby. The airport has been part of Manchester Airports Group (MAG) since 2001.

According to UK Civil Aviation Authority figures, the airport handled 3,955,756 terminal passengers in 2025, just under 4 million. Passenger services are mostly leisure flights operated by holiday and low-cost airlines, all using a single terminal. The one runway, 09/27, is 2,893 metres long.

Freight is just as important to East Midlands as passengers. MAG describes it as the UK's busiest pure cargo airport and the second largest UK airport for total cargo after Heathrow. It is a major hub for DHL, UPS, FedEx and Royal Mail, operates 24 hours a day with no slot restrictions and has five airside cargo terminals. In the financial year from April 2025 to March 2026 it handled 413,664 tonnes of cargo, an increase of 12.5% on the previous year and the first time since the Covid pandemic that annual volumes had passed 400,000 tonnes.

How to get to East Midlands Airport

By train

There is no railway station at the terminal, so rail passengers complete the journey by bus or taxi. The closest station is East Midlands Parkway, about 5 miles away, which is linked to the airport by the Nottsbus On Demand service. Skylink buses run to the airport from Derby, Nottingham and Long Eaton stations. Long Eaton station, about 7 miles away, suits rail journeys from London and the south.

By bus and coach

Buses use the coach station beside the terminal building. The main local services are:

• Skylink Derby, linking the airport with Derby, Loughborough and Leicester, every 15 minutes during the day and hourly overnight
• Skylink Nottingham, a frequent daytime service to Nottingham that runs hourly at night, with some journeys also serving Shepshed and Coalville
• Skylink Express, serving Trent Bridge and central Nottingham from early morning until late evening
• my15, connecting Ilkeston, Stapleford, Long Eaton and Castle Donington
• Diamond Bus route 9, serving Ashby and Burton

Long-distance coach services also run daily to the coach station from pick-up points around the UK.

By road

The M1 is a few minutes' drive from the airport, and Leicester is three junctions away along it. The A42 heads towards Birmingham, the A50 towards Stoke-on-Trent and the A453 towards Nottingham. The postcode for sat nav is DE74 2SA. Parking is available on site, including short stay, mid stay, long stay, JetParks and meet and greet options. The Rapid Drop Off area uses a barrierless charging system, with the fee paid online by midnight the following day. Arrow Cars is the airport's recommended taxi company.

Terminal and facilities

All passenger flights use one terminal building. Facilities include:

• Escape Lounge, open to passengers of any airline and class who book, with pre-booking also available to Priority Pass and DragonPass members
• Security FastTrack, a pre-bookable express lane through security
• Assisted travel for passengers who need extra help moving through the airport, along with guidance on accessible ground transport
• Shops and places to eat, including a WHSmith close to the coach station

General enquiries are handled through an online contact form rather than by phone. The airport says it aims to respond within 10 working days.

Airlines and destinations

The airport's airline contact directory lists Jet2.com, Ryanair, TUI, Aer Lingus and Loganair. Most flights are to holiday destinations across Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, Greece, Turkey and the wider Mediterranean, along with routes to North Africa and the Channel Islands.

For summer 2026 Jet2.com added seven destinations, taking its network from East Midlands to 43. The new routes included Agadir in Morocco, Costa de Almería in Spain, Preveza, Thessaloniki and Chania in Greece, and Pula and Split in Croatia. TUI brought back flights to Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt and continues to offer Cape Verde and Bulgaria. SunExpress started flying from the airport for the first time at Easter 2026, with a seasonal service to Antalya in Turkey.

On the cargo side, DHL, UPS and FedEx anchor the operation, and seven new cargo airlines began using the airport in the second half of 2025.

History

The airport occupies the site of RAF Castle Donington, a wartime airfield that was decommissioned in 1946. Local authorities acquired the site in the 1960s and planning approval for a new civil airport was given in 1964. East Midlands Airport was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on 21 July 1965, and its first flight arrived from Glasgow.

Freight grew steadily in the decades that followed. DHL set up its UK base at the airport in 1989 and opened its hub there in 2000, the same year the runway was extended to its present 2,893 metres. The Royal Mail air hub opened in 2005, and UPS opened a 1.2 million square foot facility in 2021. Ownership passed from the local authorities to National Express Group in 1993 and then to Manchester Airports Group in 2001. The airport was renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport in 2004 before returning to its original name in 2006, and a redevelopment of the 1960s terminal was completed in 2014.