The hundreds of East Midlands Airport flights arriving every night without a single passenger

It is a sight that one may only associate with the days of the coronavirus[1] pandemic – a totally deserted departures lounge at East Midlands Airport. Yet this is the sight that would greet anyone entering the airport from around 8pm on any given day, with outbound flight operations not starting again until around 4am. But although holidaymakers are nowhere to be seen, it is the late evening and early hours of the morning when East Midlands Airport[2] is at its busiest during the winter months.

You won’t be able to hop on a plane to Alicante or Lisbon, but around 100 flights are still moving through the airport during these twilight hours. That’s because it is during this period when the airport’s major dusk till dawn cargo operation kicks in, handling the equivalent of over one million packages every single night. The UK’s largest dedicated air cargo hub is based at East Midlands Airport, providing connections to 185 of the world’s biggest cities including New York, Dubai, Tokyo and Mumbai.

Do you think there should be a General Election? Let us know here.[3] If you have purchased an overseas Christmas[4] present during this festive period, it is highly likely that it will have passed through East Midlands Airport on its way to your Christmas tree. Ioan Reed-Aspley, the Head of Corporate Affairs at East Midlands Airport, said: “Throughout the day the operation is dominated by passenger flights, particularly in the summer.

As those last flights fly off into the sunset, our first cargo flights come in and they’re usually coming in over the Atlantic where they meet connecting flights here or lorries that distribute goods around the UK. “Most people when they’re clicking on their favourite e-commerce provider won’t even think about how their gift or present gets to their door the next day, they just increasingly expect it to be there the next day. “This is where this operation really comes to the fore.

If you order something that’s stocked overseas, the chances are it’s probably flown into the UK via this airport because this is the largest dedicated freight operation in the UK. “Throughout the year, by far the biggest beneficiaries of this operation are businesses that manufacture goods that need to be exported or imported, they could be anything from engineered parts to medical supplies. But we do see a bit of a peak with more and more people taking to e-commerce to order presents and gifts.”

Such is the peak during the winter months that the East Midlands ends up seeing more cargo flights than passenger flights, with two thirds of the site’s passengers flying between April and October. But the cargo operation is a huge part of East Midlands Airport’s business model, with around 440,000 tonnes of cargo being handled a year. On top of that, the average value per tonne of the goods passing through the airport is around GBP335,000 – 168 times higher than the average tonne at other UK ports.

All this means that East Midlands is the UK’s busiest airport at night, second only to Heathrow in terms of the volume of goods it handles.

Prime Air plane at East Midlands Airport. (Image: Nottingham Post)

Airport bosses say the cargo operation at East Midlands has “flourished” in recent years primarily due to its geography. Its position means that the airport is within a four-hour lorry drive of 90% of England and Wales’ population. The airport’s Managing Director, Steve Griffiths, said: “Our presence in Central England with unparalleled connections to the world’s largest cities makes us a key component in driving the regional economy and an asset of national significance.

With an advanced manufacturing sector and aerospace cluster on our doorstep reliant on getting goods and parts to and from all corners of the globe, we already play a vital economic role.” Delivery companies basing themselves at East Midlands Airport include DHL, UPS and FedEx. The former company’s East Midlands base is one of its largest hubs in the world, with a fleet of its shiny Boeing 777s having just landed on the airport’s eastern apron when Nottinghamshire Live visited.

Dedicated cargo planes, rather than planes carrying cargo in the belly of a passenger flight, are tightly packed with canisters full of materials ranging from legal documents needing a wet signature to premium products. These planes are often re-purposed passenger flights, meaning the windows are painted over but still just visible. As well as the three main operators, an Amazon Prime plane also lands at East Midlands Airport during our visit.

Perhaps to Jeff Bezos’ chagrin, it isn’t as big as the DHL planes. For DHL, its route sees cargo planes travelling from Cincinnati to East Midlands Airport and then on to Leipzig. The FedEx routes takes in Belgium and the US, whilst UPS planes travel from Philadelphia to East Midlands Airport and then on to Cologne.

The global nature of this cargo operation, coupled with the enormous volume of dedicated freight planes available, means that customers come in all shapes and sizes. For her recent gig at London’s O2, Madonna’s team decided to use East Midlands Airport for the delivery of staging and equipment rather than Heathrow or Gatwick, purely because of the number of dedicated slots they were able to book. Despite this worldwide nature, about 28% of exports from the airport are from the East Midlands and about 21% are from the West Midlands.

Although already contributing around GBP443 million to the regional economy last year, it is this cargo operation that airport bosses are focusing on for growth in the coming years.

Driving back up the M1, we’re passed by scores of DHL and Amazon Prime trucks, many no doubt carrying cargo just offloaded at the airport.

This frantic operation will largely be closed down by the time that the first holidaymakers arrive the next morning, many of who will be unaware that the airport’s busiest period was in full swing whilst they were sleeping.

References

1. ^ coronavirus (www.nottinghampost.com)
2. ^ East Midlands Airport (www.nottinghampost.com)
3. ^ Let us know here. (xd.wayin.com)
4. ^ Christmas (www.nottinghampost.com)