Our history

1963: East Midlands Airport Joint Committee, which was formed to find a site to replace Burnaston Aerodrome, bought Castle Donington Airfield, a former RAF base decommissioned in 1946, for £37,500.

1964: Planning permission to build a new £1.37 million airport on the site was approved and work began.

1965: East Midlands Airport was officially opened by the Duke of Edinburgh on July 21 and its first flight arrived from Glasgow. Derby Airways, which had operated at Burnaston, relocated to the new airport. This company would become British Midland which currently operates under the name ‘FlyBMI’.

1970: In March, the runway was extended by 7,480ft to allow the airport to receive larger aircraft.

1973: A second terminal, Cargo Terminal 2, opened in March allowing the airport to increase its freight operations.

1978: The first Boeing 747 jumbo jet landed at EMA.

1979: Royal Mail started weekday night air operations as part of a new inland network of postal deliveries.

1984: The number of people using the airport passed the one million mark. ELAN (now DHL) began freight operations and went on to establish their UK base at the airport in 1989.

1986: On Dec 5, Princess Anne opened a £3 million passenger terminal extension.

1989: The Kegworth air disaster occurred on 8 January. A flight from Heathrow to Belfast crashed onto the motorway embankment whilst trying to make an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport.

1993: The airport was privatised and bought by the National Express Group.

1996: A new departures building opened in the East Apron as part of a £14.5 million project. The airport welcomed its 25 millionth passenger.

1997: Cargo Terminal 4 opened.

2000: DHL opened its hub at ‘Cargo West’. The runway was extended again, taking its length to 2,893 metres.

2001: East Midlands Airport became part of the Manchester Airports Group. The new Aeropark aviation museum opened its gates.

2002: British low-cost airline Bmibaby launched at EMA in March.

2003: Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Patricia Hewitt, opened a new check-in hall extension.

2004: Low-cost airline Ryanair began operations at the airport which was renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport. Self-service check-in was launched.

2005: The airport served its 50 millionth passenger in 40 years, and the new Royal Mail air hub became operational.

2006: The airport (now back to being called East Midlands Airport) published its masterplan, outlining plans for its future growth up to 2030. It also committed to making its ground operations carbon neutral by 2012. Work was completed on Central West apron.

2007: The departures pier was completed and the airport applied for permission to install large wind turbines to generate 10% of its electricity. It launched a green extension to the terminal and received five top travel awards. An Airbus A380 staged a fly-past over the Rolls-Royce factory in Derby as a thank you to workers.

2008: Work was completed on the £10million redevelopment programme which included a new shopping experience, and a locally-supplied restaurant. The airport reached a record half a million passengers.

2009: In a world first, the airport launched a trial to power a passenger bus on liquid bio-methane. EasyJet announced their departure, quickly followed by the announcement that Jet2.com would join the Donington-based airport.

2010: A dedicated new education centre, ‘The Aerozone’ opened, the airport launched a UK first with a 26 hectare willow farm, construction of a four star hotel began on site and the auto service centre was officially opened.

2011: The first coppicing of the airport’s willow farm took place, and the first of two wind turbines arrived on site. EMA took part in the first National Climate Week and the Radison Blu hotel’s structure was completed. Over 300,000 tonnes of cargo was handled over the year.

2012: The world's largest passenger airliner, the Airbus A380, landed at East Midlands Airport.

2014: The extensive redevelopment of the terminal, which dates back to the 1960’s, reached completion.

2015: East Midlands Airport celebrated its 50th anniversary by burying a time capsule.

2016/17: Leading global logistics company, DHL invested £90 million in its infrastructure to expand its East Midlands Airport hub.

2019: Work to double the size of East Midlands Airport’s immigration hall began. Tour operator Thomas Cook collapsed leading the government to charter flights to bring holidaymakers back to the UK.

2020: The global Covid pandemic grounded all passenger flights. EMA became the UK’s second busiest airport for cargo operations. Regional airline Flybe ceased trading.

2021: Covid restrictions eased and flights resumed. Although passenger numbers were down 90%, EMA reported a record year for cargo exceeding 400,000 tonnes. EMA was announced as the port of the new East Midlands Freeport to boost economic growth. Global parcel giant UPS opened a1.2m sq ft facility at East Midlands Airport.

2022: The airport welcomed 2.2 million passengers.

2023: The fund to support communities around East Midlands Airport, which was set up in 2002, reached its £2m milestone.

2024: Passenger numbers topped 4m for the first time since the Covid pandemic. East Midlands Airport announced a five year programme and £120m investment to improve their passenger experience. They also submitted plans for Freeport land south of the A453. Its iconic Air Traffic Control and airport chaplaincy both marked their 25th anniversaries.

Community relations

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