EMA Parking & Land Side
 

I remember the day when the parking was completely free for 2 hours, and you could go for a pint upstairs (landside) in the Departures Hall and watch the Aircraft come and go from the spectators balcony. ahhh they were the days!

Ah, memories! Back in the day when our kids were little we used to go for the afternoon to MAN plane-spotting.
In those days (70's) you could walk right out to the end of the Piers and there was a Cafe on top of the main building for refreshments. Good Times gone forever.

Ostensibly in the name of security; in truth in the pursuit of profit. Doesn't have to be like that. Look at examples in Germany and The Netherlands and compare and contrast.

Used to be good times at EMA as a kid with the viewing area looking out at the TEA uk, Britannia, Air Europe etc jets.

Birmingham had the viewing area in the terminal also and Heathrow on top of the Queens Building. Shame I can't take the kids to these places, yet when we went Vienna and Amsterdam these area's still exist and are actively encouraged with tours etc.

Manchester and EMA at least have the viewing parks I guess... Heathrow have that tiny stand outside the Renaissance!

In the old days you could pitch up and leave the car there for hours, go up to the spectator terrace and wait for the odd Viscount movement. The reply from EMA will be go park in the long term car park and get the shuttle bus in - in America they have {free} cell phone car parks where you can wait then pitch up when your passenger calls you from outside.
It's only about profit and EMA don't get a to$$ about punters.

That's as may be but coming out of EMA on May 25, heading for A42, couldnt help but notice the little Fiat parked on that bit of waste land on the blind exit on the first roundabout or the two cars parked up a closed off ex-access road on the left immediately before the A42/M1 roundabout..
Where there's a will - -.?

Heaven forbid that an airport makes a profit! Why is that a bad thing?

Quite so. No profit and eventually no Airport.
EMA will likely make little money from their resident airlines (don't know about the freight side), so the money has to come, like it or not, from the 'punters' as you put it.
AFAIK there are bus services that run to and from EMA, if you dont want to pay for parking.

Why do we not get another airline to replace TUI, checked Thomas Cook for next year no flights for Florida or Mexico, come on we have only had ONE flight each week to Florida and Mexico which has just about been packed each flight, personally i think that is disgusting, who is supposed to get attract NEW airlines, or do they just sit in their Ivory Towers

If the airlines don't actually want to fly from your airport there isn't a lot the management can do.

As PDX says, nobody can force an airline to operate from an airport, they can however market their airport, and this may just be the crux of the matter.

MAG are pouring millions into upgrading and improving Manchester (see the Manchester thread if you want to see what's being built) and it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that MAG's policy is to put their marketing efforts into bringing new / increased business to Manchester, and EMA, which really has got very little new investment in passengers facilities in recent times, the focus of cargo growth and development. I hope that isn't the case, but when you look at it, EMA is far too close to BHX to be able to attract the legacy carriers to offer connections to principal European and Middle East hubs, and given the failure of BHX to hold on to any of it's scheduled transatlantic services, EMA is even less likely to be able to do so.

EMA may have to be satisfied with organic, rather than meteoric growth, and to be a passenger airport that serves the bucket and spade brigade primarily, but be a global hub for cargo. And there's nothing to be ashamed of in that!

May 2019 Pax
 

500,685 down 3.1%

12m rolling 4,828,501

Oh dear - at least our 2 were in there somewhere.
We'll help with June and October figures too. 😗

Yes EMA a bit stagnant
They had a rolling 12m of 4,859,139 in Feb 2007 - 12 years ago !

Parking Fees Reversed
 

Not many airports in the UK lower car park charges.Good on them.

Too late for me. Recently dropped my family off in the rapid drop off area for which the whole process took three minutes maximum. Various issues with getting out of the car park all out of my control and ultimately cost me £15 before they would raise the barrier for me to get out. Despite numerous protestations to the airport since they have showed no compassion to my plight and refused to refund a single penny. Another customer lost for this airport

Privilige 767 in last few days for Thomas Cook and A340 9H-PGS just turned up from BOH on a MT call sign.
Any offers?