Fresh from celebrating its 60th anniversary in style, the airport has been getting ready for the first big getaway of the year with a huge range of improvements for passengers.
Last week as part of the anniversary celebrations, a brand new restaurant, Alembic, was launched, offering Mediterranean-inspired light bites and premium, locally-source spirits. And the airport’s Escape Lounge also re-opened with a fresh new look last week to give more passengers the chance to have a super-relaxed start to their holidays.
Passengers arriving for their Easter holidays will also notice the bright, modern look of the security hall, where five out of the eight security lanes have been fitted out with next-generation scanners, making the process even quicker than usual. Ninety-nine per cent of East Midlands Airport passengers already consistently wait less than 15 minutes for security.
Other big improvements before passengers even make it to the terminal include a refreshed Meet & Greet office and a better laid-out rapid drop-off area to keep traffic flowing – which will be upgraded with a barrierless, cashless payment system from next month.
Toilets throughout the terminal have also been upgraded, along with new and extra seating, a new multi-faith room and new fully electric vehicles taking passengers using the airport’s acclaimed Assisted Travel service out to their aircraft. All these improvements are part of a £120m investment programme which last year also saw Castle Rock refurbish its popular Bar and Kitchen and open a new bar, the Yard, and a larger JD Sports outlet open in the departure lounge.
Some of the popular destinations for Easter holidaymakers are heading for are Alicante, Tenerife, Mallorca, Malaga, Lanzarote, Corfu, Paphos, Antalya, and Kefalonia. City break options include Rome, Dubrovnik, Pisa, Verona, Paris, Berlin, Budapest, Krakow, and closer to home, Belfast, Dublin, Jersey and Guernsey.
East Midlands Airport’s Customer Services and Planning Director Mike Grimes said: “We’re really looking forward to welcoming people to the airport this Easter which marks the start of our summer season.
“There’s plenty of big improvements to help give our customers an even better start to their holidays – whether that’s making it even quicker and easier to get through our rapid drop-off and security areas or having a fresh and wider choice of places to shop, eat and drink.
“It feels fitting that as we celebrate our 60th anniversary, we can give our customers an improved East Midlands Airport experience with these new features.”