Terminal
Owned by MAG, the same group as Manchester and Stansted, East Midlands puts five scheduled carriers — Aer Lingus, Jet2.com, Ryanair, Loganair and TUI — under one roof. It is a small passenger operation next to a giant one: by night the same airfield becomes, in the airport’s own words, “the UK’s number one express air freight hub”, with DHL, UPS and FedEx running their UK overnight networks from here.
Jet2 and TUI open their desks three hours before departure; every other airline opens two hours before. Twilight bag drop — checking hold luggage in the evening before an early flight — is offered by several airlines, but cut-off times and size limits vary, so it has to be confirmed with the airline directly.
East Midlands still runs the older liquids rule: containers under 100ml in hand luggage, no longer needing a clear plastic bag, with anything larger not permitted through the checkpoint at all — several other UK airports have already moved to a 2-litre limit. A paid FastTrack lane (from £5.99) runs from 03:00 until the last departing flight.
East Midlands never built its own railway platform. Four stations do the job instead — East Midlands Parkway, Derby, Nottingham and Long Eaton — each linked to the terminal by Skylink or, for East Midlands Parkway, the Nottsbus On Demand service, so which one to pick depends on where the train itself is heading.
The Assisted Travel desk sits inside the main check-in hall — plan to be at the airport a minimum of two hours before departure and present yourself there no later than 1 hour 30 minutes ahead. Self-propelling and child-sized wheelchairs, plus electric mobility scooters, are on hand, a quieter route bypassing most of the post-security shops can be requested at the desk, and the terminal itself has a Sensory Pod, Changing Places facilities and Quiet Rooms. Give your airline or travel agent 48 hours’ notice to set assistance up in the first place.