East Midlands Airport renamed

The UK’s East Midlands Airport is this morning flying under a new name – but not everyone is happy about it. Nottingham East Midlands Airport was officially named yesterday after pressure from the main carrier at the airport, bmibaby – but the decision has caused disquiet in Derby and Leicester, the other two cities nearby. Managing director of bmibaby, Tony Davis said: “Research shows that people outside the UK don’t know where the East Midlands is, especially as it’s not identified by a dot on the map. They are, however, much more likely to be familiar with Nottingham, and we expect the name change to help stimulate growth in the number of inbound passengers – essential to our continued route development – and in turn inward investment.” One airport official reportedly told the Guardian: “The problem is that you can’t find the words East Midlands on any map – especially abroad, where they don’t seem to know too much about Leicester and Derby either. We have been doing completely independent commercial surveys and Nottingham comes out miles ahead. We think it’s because of Hollywood and Robin Hood.” The Guardian reports that the airport served 4.3 million passengers last year, compared to 3.2 million in 2002; even so, it is still suffering from an identity crisis. A spokeswoman reportedly said: “We get plenty of people starting their journeys here but too few from abroad wanting to make us their destination. We think that’s because they don’t know where we are.”