CAA figures 'evidence of EMA's hard work'

Officials at Nottingham/East Midlands Airport (EMA) have welcomed research from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) showing strong traffic at the hub and said the statistics are evidence of the hard work that has taken place.

According to the CAA, East Midlands Airport handled 4.7 million leisure passengers in 2006, which represents a higher proportion of overall traffic than any other base in the UK.

Customers on leisure trips accounted for 87.6 per cent of EMA's traffic last year, the highest ratio of 11 surveyed hubs, including Stansted Airport and Gatwick Airport.

According to Penny Coates, managing director of EMA, the growth and success that occurred at the East Midlands base in 2006 has continued this year.

"The figures released by the CAA show that we have worked extremely hard to offer our customers a wide portfolio of destinations from their local airport," Ms Coates said.

"In 2007, we have had month on month passenger growth; the August bank holiday alone was one of the highest year on year increases in the country."

Between January and August this year over 3.65 million travellers used EMA, a 17 per cent increase on the corresponding period in 2006.