Photo: East Midlands Airport
Air traffic is on the rise at the regional airport which expects to welcome 1.8m passengers this summer.
East Midland Airport’s plans to rethink the layout of aircraft stand spaces is aligned with plans to facilitate forecasted growth in cargo operations and passenger traffic.
The airport is the largest cargo airport in the UK and second only to London Heathrow in terms of the total annual tonnage of cargo it handles. It handles over 370,000 tonnes of flown cargo every year.
Current aircraft stand capacity
To accommodate both freight and passenger traffic, the airport currently features three ‘aprons’. The east and west aprons are dedicated to cargo operations and the central apron the area that all passenger flights arrive and depart from.
During the summer season, the 23 stands for passenger aircraft are full with the airport also working to drive an increase in passenger services, including the recent announcement of new services to Turkey with SunExpress starting next summer. The number of cargo airlines also choosing East Midlands for their operations is growing. In response, teams at the airport have been tasked with finding a way to grow capacity within the existing apron space.
“The operation of an airfield is quite rightly highly regulated to ensure safety and so any changes to layouts is a huge challenge involving a lot of different specialist knowledge at the airport,” said Head of Airfield Operations, Lauren Turner.
“At East Midlands, we have the extra challenge of being two airports in one – a friendly, customer-focused passenger airport by day and the UK’ number one airport for cargo by night.”
How EMA’s team addressed the challenge of a complex apron redesign
The move to increase capacity within the existing space presented a significant technical challenge requiring complex redesign, procedural overhauls and a key focus on safety. However airport staff have come together to resolve the challenges and increase capacity.
The result can be seen in new markings on the east and west aprons, which has doubled the airport’s capacity for wide-bodies cargo aircraft to seven. Work is ongoing on the central apron to create four more stands for passenger aircraft. Future improvements include a full rem-marking of the apron, installation of new centreline lighting and expansion of parking areas for ground service equipment (GSE).
“Our teams rose magnificently to the challenge to enable more cargo and passenger aircraft to operate from East Midlands,” added Turner.
“Both parts of our business work hand in hand to ensure our long-term success, so it’s crucial that we continue to invest in both areas.”
Accommodating the summer surge
East Midlands is this year celebrating its official opening 60 years ago with more than 18,500 people set to travel through the airport on Sunday 20 July.
Around one million passengers have already flown through the airport since its summer season began in May with a further 882,000 travellers scheduled to fly through the airport over the forthcoming school holiday period.
The airport has recently carried out a GBP12m investment programme with a new barrierless, cashless payment system in place to help with traffic and car parking. Security arrangements have also been upgraded with next-generation scanners improving the experience with passengers able to leave liquids and laptops in their cabin bag when passing through security.
“We’re looking forward to another great summer at East Midlands Airport,” said Managing Director, Steve Griffiths. “What better way to mark our 60th anniversary than with our busiest day of the summer. It really shows how far we’ve come as an airport when we’ll be welcoming 18,500 people on Sunday 20 July, compared to just 315 daily passengers in our first year.”
The airport, which is owned and operated by Manchester Airports Group (MAG) was officially opened on Monday 21 July 1965.
