East Midlands Airport gets new name – and goes green

Nottingham East Midlands Airport aims to make its site operations carbon neutral by 2012.

It has also changed its name to East Midlands Airport – Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and is to encourage more long haul flights.

The airport will eliminate CO² emissions from its ground operations at the Castle Donington site or where that is not possible, introduce initiatives to offset them elsewhere.

This initiative is part of a Master Plan for the airport, published today following public consultation reinforcing a package of other environmental measures announced earlier in the year.

Of 500 respondents who completed a questionnaire, not one disagreed with the broad premise that the economic and social benefits of growth at the airport outweigh any adverse consequences resulting from the proposed expansion, EMA said.

Managing director Penny Coates said: “We are very aware of our responsibilities to the community and continuously strive to improve our performance in all aspect of our business. 

“However, it is equally important that we not only balance them against the needs of our millions of customers, but also that we clearly prioritise those issues which impact large numbers of people and on which we can act and those that are outside our control.

“As a result of everyone’s efforts we now believe that we have a very robust, exciting and workable strategy for the future and for delivering growth in a responsible and sustainable way”.

Commenting on the new name, she said: “We believe this change is the right commercial decision now, given our clear growth strategy.

“In making any change our objective is to provide a strong platform both for the long term development reflected in the Master Plan; and for the future needs of the travel trade; inbound passengers coming from increasingly far afield; and the local community.

“I am personally delighted that the three cities have proven that they are serious about working together more closely for the greater good of the region and the airport will continue to play a central role in acting as the key gateway to the East Midlands”.

East Midlands Tourism chief executive Richard Dicknson said: “Travel and tourism make an important contribution to the region’s economic health. 

“Our goal is to increase the value of the visitor economy and the ability to attract more visitors from overseas is critical in achieving this. In competing with destinations globally, we need to highlight the range and quality of our tourist attractions and in particular to emphasise that East Midlands Airport is the gateway to the vibrant cities and typically English landscapes of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Derbyshire”.

Report by Phil Davies