RAF Castle Donington RAF Castle Donington was opened as a
Royal Air Force station in 1943, during the
Second World War. The airfield was equipped with three concrete runways, together with two hangars, and was a satellite airfield to
RAF Wymeswold, situated some to the southeast. Initially, the airfield was used by the
28 Operational Training Unit, training
RAF Bomber Command crews on the
Vickers Wellington, and subsequently by the
108 Operational Training Unit, later renamed 1382 Transport Conversion Unit, training
RAF Transport Command crews on the
Douglas Dakota. The airfield closed and the air force station was decommissioned in 1946.
East Midlands Airport A group of local government agencies bought the former RAF station site in 1964, at which point a sizeable construction and runway investment programme was launched. The airfield was renamed East Midlands Airport to reflect the area it served, and it opened for passengers in April 1965, replacing the redundant
Derby Airport.
British Midland had its head office on the airport property. BMI also had its maintenance base at the airport. In 1993,
National Express purchased the airport from the local councils. With
Bournemouth Airport, it was sold to
Manchester Airports Group in February 2001. In 2004 the airport was controversially renamed Nottingham East Midlands Airport. The change, however, did not last long, and on 8 December 2006, the airport's name was reverted to East Midlands Airport.
EasyJet ceased operating from the airport on 5 January 2010. However, it was announced on 13 April 2011 that
Bmibaby would close its Manchester and Cardiff bases, moving an additional service to East Midlands Airport with increased frequencies and new routes for summer 2012. It was announced only just over a year later, on 3 May 2012, that Bmibaby would close down and cease all operations in September 2012, with a number of services being dropped from June. The parent company,
International Airlines Group, cited heavy losses and the failure to find a suitable buyer as the reasons for the decision. In light of the announcement,
Flybe and
Monarch Airlines announced they would establish a base at the airport, and low-cost airline
Jet2.com confirmed they would also expand their operations from the airport, with new routes and an additional aircraft from the summer of 2013. In 2015, the airport announced jet2.com would base a seventh aircraft at East Midlands Airport in the summer period. Ryanair expanded its East Midlands base with a series of new routes and frequency increases on existing routes. Ryanair became the largest airline at the airport, accounting for about 50% of passenger traffic, with East Midlands now being Ryanair's third-largest UK airport, after
London Stansted and
Manchester, both now also owned by
MAG. In 2016, Heathrow handled 1.54 million tonnes of freight and mail, compared with 300,100 tonnes in East Midlands. with EMA announcing that all flights were cancelled with immediate effect, the following day. In the summer of 2020,
Aer Lingus announced they would commence flights to Belfast, operated by
Stobart Air, taking over the route which was once operated by Flybe, until their collapse in early 2020. In June 2021, Stobart Air collapsed, ceasing the route. Later in the month, EasyJet announced they would take over the Belfast route, operating frequent flights to
Belfast International Airport. This was the first easyJet route announced from East Midlands since they stopped services from the airport in January 2010. ==Airlines and destinations==