EAST MIDLANDS - 4

[Lite]

oliema, I'm not quite sure why you think it's so sad that Ryanair are expanding at East Midlands Airport. The airline is clearly committed to growth at the airport, in a way we simply have never seen from the bmi group under any of their incarnations (British Midland, British Midland Commuter, bmi regional, bmibaby), and Ryanair are helping add destinations where there is clearly a strong demand, but would never have even been a blip on the radar of bmibaby. I'm not going into the whole sales spiel, but Ryanair are a very important part of the airport's operation now, and hopefully long may this continue.

Terminal work continues to change every day. You'll probably have noticed that the check-in hall is being slowly chopped & changed, as the airport is keen for retail units to be increased in the decreasing landside space. Considering that ticketing functions are decreasing for tour operators, it seems that only the main tour operators; Thomson, MyTravel (their unit has been halved in space), First Choice, Thomas Cook (moving into a smaller unit), Aviation Affairs and Airport-Agencies (the latter two representing various smaller tour operators) will have a ticket desk in the terminal, alongside those of the airlines. The leftover space is going to be used for small retail outlets within the check-in hall, to compliment the Caffe Ritazza, which will indicate where the landside part of the terminal will end.

[owenkirk2005]

Ryanair is great for the airport, lots of flights and to places where lots of people want to go, and at a low price! for example dublin, this used to be around £50 return on bmibaby but then on ryanair its around £21 including taxes return. I noticed yesterday that the roof is now on the new pier, works progressing fast, any images of it?

[Flyboy543]

Have seen a copy of the Thomson summer 07 programme from EMA, although still says 'subject to change' in red letters at the top!

Based at EMA will be 2x B752 and 1x B738 confirming no based B767. There is a lot of 'W' patterns (LBA LTN & BHX) on both types. One each day, with both 757's doing 'W' patterns on a Sunday. Seems they have only added one more destination than last year, VAR but increased frequencies insted of adding more destinations ie PMI is now 8 weekly with 2 trips on Thurs & Fri.

Dosn't have any information on W patterns opperating into EMA with other based a/c.

Flyboy

[NutLoose]

Hi, Ok this is a composite picture showing from the Runway all the way round to the Old JCB hangar and I took them at the height of the Diversions when the apron was Chocker with diversions....... I was standing on an Airstair that had a mind of its own in the winds

You will also see the new Pier as it stood then, the file is 2.2mb in size so will post a link for you that wish to see it.. Please dont post the pic itself on here as the prune site bandwith will take a dent



http://mysite.orange.co.uk/donno2006...Diversions.jpg

[SAM-EMA]

Great pic, Nut Loose, thanks for posting.

SAM-EMA

[Lite]

EasyJet self-service check-in machines are being removed from the airport at the beginning of next month. We've not been told why, but I think it was just an experiment to see how they'd work, and after three years I guess the airline would rather check people in using a desk or online, rather than investing in these machines.

[tui doll]

Normally, Thomsonfly's 'W' patterns work for e.g:- one crew operating the ema-alc-lba (this crew taxying back to ema) - meanwhile another ema crew are taxying upto lba to take over the aircraft to operate lba-alc-ema.

Can you confirm the total number of flights per week for the Summer'07 programme? Thanks

[Flyboy543]

Including all the W patterns there's 37 departures each week with 8 W flights. 23 are 757 flights and the rest 738. PM me if you want the whole timetable

[SAM-EMA]

From May, XL will be basing an aircraft in Larnaca to open up new flights from there to EMA. Other airports that will be served are: LTN, DTV and HUM.

PLUS: FR Deliveries; Will it be.....?
1 on the 12th, 1 on the 19th and the last on the 26th.
Please correct if I'm wrong.

[bmibaby.com]

For those of you who've been wanting to find out exactly what is meant by the terminal developments, the airport has now released a press statement;

New Look For Airport Terminal In 2007

Work is well underway on a significant redevelopment programme for the passenger terminal at East Midlands Airport – Nottingham, Leicester, Derby costing more than £8 million and improving facilities for over 4.7 million customers every year.

Construction began during the winter months of 2006 and the changes will be completed in time for the busy summer season which starts in April. A new escalator, staircase and lift are currently being installed in the departure lounge and the reconfiguration of the retail space is now taking place, with the first shop opening at the end of January. The mini bus station (interchange), being added to the arrivals area of the terminal building, is also being built and will be ready for shop fitting towards the end of February. All airside (beyond security) refurbishments are due to commence at the end of January.

A new pier with a high level walkway from the existing departure lounge is now under construction – this will allow passengers to walk undercover to a newly constructed gate lounge, which will serve six aircraft stands. The new gate lounge will be energy efficient obtaining the heat for the building from the ground. In addition the toilets will use rain water for flushing, reducing the impact on the environment. A number of commercial contracts have now been agreed and the Airport can announce that:

NCP (National Car Parks) has just been awarded a three year contract, starting March 2007, to manage the coaching and car parking operation. The company will be responsible for getting customers to and from the car parks to the terminal using a new fleet of low emission vehicles, which have just been purchased.

Jamie Christon, EMA General Manager Retail Trading said,
“We’re absolutely delighted that a company leading the industry with experience and an excellent reputation in this area of the business will be serving the Airport. Customers will be able to use the new, environmentally friendly fleet of coaches and will undoubtedly appreciate the first class service that NCP will provide to passengers during their journey.”

Peter Mawson, Airport Commercial Manager, National Car Parks Ltd said,
“NCP is delighted to be working with East Midlands Airport at such an exciting time in its development. We believe that our expertise in car parking will contribute towards even further improving the experience for customers using the Airport. Our aim is to provide a service which is a seamless as possible and allows passengers to park pay and get away as quickly and easily as possible.”

SSP (Select Service Partner) will continue to manage catering concessions in the terminal building and has been given a seven year contract. SSP has committed more than £2 million on developing a new Soho Coffee Company outlet to open in February, a new first floor bar with views across the runway, a landside sandwich shop in the Check-In Hall and a larger Caffe Ritazza in the departure lounge.

Alpha Airports Group has been awarded a seven year contract to operate duty free, catering and newsagents within the terminal building. Alpha has committed to spend £2 million in developing and refitting the existing units, to include a refurbished and extended duty free, a new airside newsagent, a bookshop and a refitted food hall.

A five year contract has also been secured by Alliance Boots to operate a new, enlarged store in the departure lounge. Jamie continued, “The Airport is very pleased that the Nottingham based company will continue to serve our passengers after ten successful years of trading here at the Castle Donington site. We have managed to provide a larger area in the departure lounge for the business to relocate from its original location before security”.

Finally, the Airport is relocating its Spar convenience store to a new, larger unit in the bus interchange. The shop will continue to sell those last minute food and drink purchases for both arriving and departing passengers, meeters and greeters and those travelling to and from the Airport by public transport. The expanded store will now also sell newspapers and magazines, food to go and hot drinks. Jamie said, “Spar has become a very popular addition to the Airport over the last five years. This brand new and greatly enlarged unit will allow the company to vastly increase its range and be a welcome improvement to all our customers”.

All this comes less than a week after East Midlands Airport secured the title of ‘Best Regional UK Airport’ at the Travel Weekly Globe Awards, beating other airports such as Manchester, Birmingham, London Gatwick and Stansted, who were also nominated in the category.

I've heard that the new sandwich shop in the check-in hall is going to be built where the old Thomas Cook ticket desk was. I can imagine that will please Servisair (as surely it blocks Desk 32) and easyJet (who now have a sandwich shop obscuring the view of their lovely orange wall.)

[almost professional]

much more important-is the sandwich shop going to be subway? if so will be fatal for the ATC waistline!

[Lite]

I had heard that it was going to be a Subway, after all, there was supposed to be a retail outlet of Subway opening for Summer 2006, but at the last minute there were contract issues, and they decided not to go ahead. My only issue about having a Subway in the check-in hall, is that unless it is a proper restaurant, the smell of the vinegars etc that they use could end up overpowering everybody working/queuing for desks 30 - 32! I've not heard any objections that Servisair have for them building a new sandwich shop, especially as we don't use 32 to check in passengers.

[bmibaby.com]

Does anybody know how the CUSS machines are doing? I heard today that the CUSS in front of the bmibaby desks might be being pulled out, and that Servisair weren't best impressed with the ones they're forced to use.

[bmibabyfc]

yes Servisair havnt been impressed by these CUSS machines from all accounts. Theres no need to use them on families travelling on charter flights, they should be targetted at the hand baggage bus pax.

As long at i dont see them at the baby check in !!!!

[Nimrod6]

MYT

Hi everyone, I'm new to the thread.

Just want to see if anyone has heard any more about FCA and a based B787 from 2008?

[Lite]

The problem with the CUSS machines, is that we have absolutely no control over them. Whilst they're not difficult to use, unlike the machines installed at Manchester, the handling agents have not been trained to use these (ie how to rectify an issue if something goes wrong) or simply to be able to provide the customer service element of the machines, this role going to the airport's customer service assistants. Servisair don't like the fact we have to use these machines, despite the fact no airline will pay to use them and all our staff do is sit behind the bag drops which is a dull shift. The airport also hasn't done a particularly good job of marketing them, there is hardly any signage for the machines, and the package holiday pax that these machines are targetted for, simply want to use the check-in desks they're familiar with.

[Mr Angry from Purley]

Hi Sam

I notice in March the FR morning flight goes EMA-DUB-EMA iso DUB-EMA-DUB so I guess another aircraft is due soon

[UFGBOY]

New Airline..

Anybody heard of UKIA - based EMA doing DXB/ISB + cANADA?

Meant to be a start up...

[SAM-EMA]

UFGBOY try reading the thread about UKIA. All the info you will want is on there, except they are only starting flights to Asia, not Canada (well to start with anyway).

[Chilli Monster]

It's photo time again:



Lounge area roof goes on - tower to the left is for the incoming walkway which, as can be seen from this picture, has quite a distance to cover from the pier tower at the bottom of the shot