Just a real world comment about airbridges.
They come a long way down the list of priorities for most airlines.
STN has them, virtually no airlines use them. Extensions at LTN were built without them. Air France, bmi, CityJet, FlyBE all regularly use stands at EDI without link access to the terminal building.
From an airline's persective they are cost items and often avoided.
For all those who think an airbridge or two is going to attract a New York service, or a long haul airline like EK - stop wa***ng on airliners.net and read some business newspapers. Whatever aircraft type you think would be "nice to see", adding an air bridge aint goning to make it happen.
What EMA DOES need to sort out is its terrible ramp layout and need for pax the be held in gates while a flight at a neighbouring stand unloads and pax walk in front of the terminal windows to the arrivals door. This really slows down peak turnround times.
What EMA DOES need to attract is a network carrier with full connectivity at a hub such as FRA (but recent German tax hikes make the country a very bad place to connect now), CDG, AMS or GVA.
What EMA DOES need to sort out is security queues.
Comments about venturing out of the Derby/Leicester/Nottingham triangle immediately puts you in BHX/MAN catchment area shows a lake of geographical knowledge.
Comments about the East Midlands region lacking businesses to support non-leisure destinations shows a lack of knowledge of the East Midlands region. The region homes some of the UK's largest and most profitable companies. Rolls Royce Aero Engines, Toyota UK Cars, NEXT Retail, the centre of the UK's brewing industry, University Hospitals and medical reseach specialist centres, Bombardier trains etc etc.
The very fact that EMA is the UK's second largest freight airport clearly indicates the presence of local businesses that operate on an international level.
The weakness at the moment lies firmly with the management of EMA, and the MAG. No airlines - low cost or network carrier - are in a position to open speculative connections. They are attracted to airports that operate an very active marketing department and route development team and show willingness to become partners. The lack of investment by the big airlines at EMA clearly indicates that these departments at EMA are not pulling their weight.
I would suggest the airport spends less time trying to attract awards for its bus services and more time focusing on contacting and supplying airlines with strong up to date Management Information that graphically illustrates the EMA catchment area's demographic.
Coming back to the terminal building, there is no doubt that it's organic hotch potch growth from the original building really is starting to show and the real solution would be a rebuild - but as rightly pointed out this would require huge capital investment.
Nevertheless, huge improvements could be made with the provision of full arrival/departure passenger segregation enclosed within a building, with access via steps directly from each aircraft stand (or every other one).
Any who have experienced delays at the UK border can be assured that queues at STN in the weekend evenings are horrendous. Queues at LGW can be massive. LTN regulalry squeezes every arrival past 2 UK Border inspection posts. EMA is not alone in this problem, and the issue lies with the UK Immigration and Border Agency and their inability to staff appropriately for the time of day and flight schedules.
In my experience most Control Agencies at UK airports have the self belief that they are almost divine in status and therefore for superior to any requests for co-operation from Airport Companies.
I am sorry for this being a bit of a rant.
