History of Nottingham East Midlands Airport

As with most modern day airports Nottingham east Midlands airport started life as a RAF station. Raf Castle Donnington as it was known was purchased in 1960 by a consortium of local authorities and renamed East Midlands to reflect its geographical location.

Brtish Midland Airways which was based at Derby airport moved its operation to the larger East Midlands airport which because of its location was felt to have far greater potential. Effectively East Midlands took over from Derby which is now the site of the Toyota factory.

At this time the airport runway was only 5900 ft in length and most of the traffic confined to internal UK flights and short haul. At this time the airport due to its limited programme struggled to get established with bigger rivals Birmingham and Manchester carving up the lion’s share of the rapidly growing packaged holiday market.

The establishment of a new freight terminal in 1970 helped by the need to extend the runway. Futher extensions continued throughout the 70’s but the airport growth was still well behind other airports. In 1985 the airport passed the 1 million passenger level and in 1987 the local authorities due to legal requirements created a plc to operate the airport.

The local autorities effectively still controlled the airport at arms length and funding was always an issue and in 1993 National express group purchased the airport for £24 million. This company invested upwards of £77 million improving the runways and terminal facilities. A 600 metre extension to the runway allowed the airport to to compete with bigger rivals and National express decided to cash in on their investment selling the company to Manchester airport who also purchased Bournemouth at the same time for £241 million.

Low cost airlines prefer the lower costs of regional airports and following Luton airport and Stansted East Midlands was a natural base for these airlines. 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.
The airport was renamed Nottingham east Midlands airport in 2004 much too the chagrin off Leicester and Derby. The airport is nearer to Derby and lies within Leicester however, Nottigham is internationlly better known due to the exploits of Nottingham Forest and Robin Hood.