East Midlands Airport (EMA) in North West Leicestershire

£5 for 15 min drop off

Airport Wi-Fi is still not working unfortunately.

Was quick easy and very friendly staff who was very helpful

If arriving at midnight and thinking about spending the night here, I am doing that right now and it's quite terrible but doable. It's like most regional UK airports, but somehow even smaller. At the arrivals area, there are benches near the bus stands but they're occupied by a couple homeless people. At departures, the best area to sleep is across the Ryanair check in desks, at the left end of the entrance, or the very quiet and dim prayer rooms. Wifi doesn't work at departures and apparently hasn't for years.

Great place. Arrived 4am for an early flight, everywhere clean and open, good space and well maintained. 5 mins through security 👍🏻

So easy to park staff outstanding bus to airport every 15 minutes

Great place to start flying to some where else. 😊👍

Easy to book on line and the shuttle bus is great when you have parked on Jetparks 1 and 2.

This must be the worse airport in Britain. Drop off experience is awful, long delays trying to pay to exit - only two exit lanes that keep breaking down. Toilets appalling, not maintained properly, and a 40 minute queue to use the five e-passport gates. The best advice - Fly from somewhere else.

Great stress free airport no problem with security etc plus staff are friendly which makes a change 🙂

Staff at passport control very helpful!

Today I had a shocking experience at East Midlands Airport. I was appalled to be charged £5 for a drop-off that lasted less than 30 seconds. It's absolutely ridiculous to charge such an exorbitant fee just for dropping someone off at the airport. This kind of pricing is nothing short of a cash grab and leaves a sour taste. It's disappointing to see the airport taking advantage of travelers in this way.

The place is filthy bar tables have not been cleared in four hours

For just being at the gas station near East Midlands Airport, I got a £100 fine for no reason as I needed to pump my tyres at the car up. Not recommended.

Arrived at 3am, bags weren’t out til 4am so not a great start!! Then we’ve been charged an extra £20 for parking for absolutely no reason other than pure and blatant money making… we’ve come from hurghada, and my god that airport shows you up entirely!!

Rapid drop off fee of £5 is not just exorbitant it’s ridiculous thievery. I’ve travelled through scores of airports around the world and can’t remember anyone of them charging a fee for a simple kerbside drop off. Added to that is the way you’re trapped into the whole exercise by the road signage (which makes no mention of any fee) and the £1 per minute excess charge hanging over your head if you felt like protesting or questioning someone in management. This insult to customer services will cost them patronage in the long run. Update: a couple of years later and I’m still avoiding EMA like the plague. Same with colleagues and friends- happy to travel further for better customer service.

Toilets smelt like not been cleaned in a long time

No wi-fi, restaurants closed at 5pm, no public water, Toilets are broken ...

They destroy your luggage. They do not care they will send you to the farthest gate running as they give a gate info 5 minutes before closing the gate. Absolute shambles.

Horrible , cold., dirty , no coffe shop on departures only on arrivals Chaotic ,staff horrible , Awfull experience

I do find security can be officious and bossy, but we're not all silly and stupid, we know what's expected. My problem is the grubby toilets other countries have far cleaner toilets it's embarrassing.... Bleach would help!

Small but decent airport, have always got through security and gates with very little waiting or fuss. Plenty of toilets and places to get drinks etc.

I don't know what airport the other reviewers went to, but I was thoroughly unimpressed with EMA. 2 reasons: it pretty poor in appearance, inside and outside, it was better 50 years ago, also the airport layout favours the commercial users who don't need to be near the terminal, whereas the passenger facilities, e.g. car hire and hotels are not close. I can see how this has happened, but is mega inconvenient. Perhaps the owners of the airport should take themselves off to Alicante (much bigger, parking and car hire adjacent, and infinitely more attractive.

I have travelled through the airport many times over the years. Very good service during covid restrictions. But since then I have noticed a change in tone and friendliness. Starting in the passport checking. The unwelcoming tone of the signage. The absence of a smile from the staff who herd and coral the passengers with a sense of officialdom. When it comes to departure the tone of the staff is the same. In between, those dispensing hospitality are very good. My conclusion is that half of your staff have what it takes and the other half from Security check to passport control and to the Departure gate, need a shake up.

Rubbish. No buses on landing as usual. On plane for 30mins waiting then slow passport control. Final insult, £6 for 2 mins for friends to pick us up.

Not a bad airport staff are lovely and friendly but unfortunately the state of the toilets were disgusting the whole area too and from departure to arrivals looked like it could do with a good clean up

I like this airport because it’s small and quick to navigate. You don’t need to be here hours beforehand and still worry that you won’t make it, as gates a quick to get to. Parking it’s a bit of a mess but a lot of people express their feelings about it already so no need for more. Duty free has all the usuals, not huge but big enough. I way prefer to fly from here than hectic unorganised Birmingham AirPort.

Have been flying from this airport ever since Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed, and I can't wait for it to reopen because this airport is shocking, it can't handle the amount of traffic that travels through it, if you choose to fly tui (totally useless incompetence) then your experience is even worse, every time we have flown which is 7 in the last two years we have never had a smooth time here and on the last visit we arrived to find that the luggage belts had both gone down and had to travel with no luggage because between the airport staff and tui staff they couldn't organise anything they walked round like headless chickens no one looked in charge and no one was even trying to do the basics right like putting the luggage in flight order it was absolutely embarrassing watching them, jet2 and Ryanair both had the same issue to deal with but delt with it so much better, everyone was asking why haven't jet2 got huge cues, and then when we arrived on the return flight it was hammering it down with rain but they still made us walk all the way to the passport control area, there was two flights in so why no buses, seriously get the basics right cattle get treated better.

Shocking airport , landed at 1am - no staff to take us off the plane resulting in various delays down the chain. Same as any other UK airport really.

Got diverted here from Birmingham with TUI. Awful airport, extremely slow to sort bags and border control. Been 70 mins since plane landed and still sat here waiting for our luggage.

Please, please, please sort out the wifi! Shocking that in 2024 this doesn't work (and has never worked!!!)

Finding it hard to believe someone at East Midlands Airport Allow 17 flights to leave without any suitcase on board 3rd day now and still waiting for suitcase. Along with tui who claim to offer a perfect holiday experience totally ruined this holiday

20 mind plus to get out drop off zo e!

There was a breakdown at the Ryanair check-in desk and the luggage was accumulated at the side, and we were in a hurry to depart. It turned out that only 4 suitcases were packed on the plane and the plane was full of people. We landed in Krakow and our luggage (3 suitcases) was left at East Midlands Airport. Luckily for us, we had just finished a short stay and were heading home. But what were people who flew to Poland on holiday or had medicines in their luggage supposed to say? We will see how quickly (if at all) our luggage will be returned to us.

1 only because 0 isn't an option. Here we sit in Benalmadena, 12 hours after our flight landed, with absolutely no luggage due to the baggage handling system at EMA not working. What sort of a tinpot outfit has no back up system to deal with a major failure like this. NEVER EVER AGAIN EMA!!

Never been to such a shoddy airport in many years. The toilets were littered with paper and used coffee cups, even empty alcohol cans. There for over two hours and nothing got cleaned. Walls and skirting boards also filthy and bashed about. Litter was literally in all the seating areas. Usual complaint of having to pay £5 to be dropped off which took 1 minute and overpriced food and drink. Shame really as it’s a local airport and nice and small.

Swissport staff are borderline st.id. They will push people out of terminal when the plain is not even deboarded. Why? To have emty gate for no reason. I have seen this multiple times. Enjoy rain outside and watching people leaving your plain out close and empty gate behind you.

The airport departures and arrivals themselves are not too bad (most of the time). For anyone using the rapid pick up and drop off point, the experience is not very good most of the time. This facility gets extremely busy and with only two exit points that are not the quickest to pay and exit through, queues soon start backing up making it almost impossible to exit within the allocated time given for the extortionate £5 fee. If you exceed that time you will be hit by an even more extortionate fee (£1 per minute). That is probably why the airport pick up and drop off intentionally only has two exits, it deliberately creates a situation where cars are stuck inside longer than the given timeframe thus trapping them into extra £1 per minute penalty charges for overstaying the allocated time. Another issue with the rapid drop off and pick up is not so much the fault of the airport operator but rather the people who use it. Too many people do not use the allocated parking bays at either side of the road, choosing instead just to stop bang in the middle of the road to drop off or pick up their passengers. This creates chaos which doesn't seem to concern these inconsiderate A-holes in the slightest. This all adds to being stuck inside a facility with a very strict time limit in place. In fairness to the operator, when it descends into such chaos at the pick up and drop off, they sometimes lift the exit barriers and just keep them open as a pressure relief valve before people start brawling. As a taxi driver I go there almost every other week so I see the reality. It needs at least five exit gates at the rapid pick up drop off to cope when it gets busy or alternatively, drop the £5 . A fee may I add that has jumped significantly over the last few years from £2.

I don't recommend it. The staff behaves like a typical racist society. They shout, threaten and extort money for luggage that is the same size. Some failure...

I will travel from EMA every holiday now. I have just had to start having assisted travel for a neurological disorder and the care from the assisted travel staff here was amazing. A lot quieter than BHX so also makes it a better option

The airport is always hassle free, with reasonably priced on-site parking (always book in advance with EMA newsletter promo codes). Easy to amend free on-line or excellent manchester airport group call centre. Security outbound - it's unusual to spend any more than 15 minutes queuing, sometimes only 10 minutes or less. Good selection of eateries and airport lounge. Only negative points are lack of an Airport Shuttle Bus to East Midlands Parkway Railway Station and the local Skylink Bus Service, does not serve East Leicestershire.

Easy check in and Security. Enough space to sit and have food.

Full of mannerless working class people - will cough and sneeze in your face, push past you without care. Felt like I was trapped in the riots. I believe they’re attracted like moths to cheap flights to Spain.

Security seem to make up random rules, they should be clearly communicated with signs, and not the whim of whatever the staff think that day.

This place keeps flying planes very low over our estates and homes. Everyone is sick of it. All hours of night and day very loud planes fly over our residency. My grandson hates it and it affects all other elderly clients especially with hearing aids or sleeping aids. Recently this year has been the worst and is not getting better and these people only get more bad. Please dear god get rid of this unholy place amen.

Never had any issues here. Easy to locate, and to navigate around, they have a smoking area which is a great idea ! (For those who do smoke - located upstairs through the bar!) Prefer ema to other airports

This airport makes impression you are not really in a first world country, UK. There is no drinking water available. One café that had a water dispenser, does not filter it, it's just tap water and you can clearly taste the chlorine. None of Wi-Fis worked. Vending machines have incorrect product arrangement. When you choose something by number, the machine shows different product and therefore incorrect price. To board the plane I had to walk through torrential rain and try to avoid massive puddles. It seems that management of this airport do not care just a tiniest bit about the passengers, it functions just by doing the bare minimum.

Small airport, could have better facilities

Badly run and charge extortionate charges just to pick someone up more than any other airport in the UK.

Had to dock 2 more stars, yet again return flight forced to go through passport control as a family instead of scanners and they had 1 person yes 1 person checking our passports on a return flight which was 80% families. Stark contrast for Menorca airport a larger airport where it took a fraction of the time to get through security both ways. So nearly got a 5 stars departing was amazing straight through and very friendly staff flight on time. Arriving back took an eternity to get through security checks, two flights to get through and 2 people checking passports for families it also took some time for our taxi to get us out, perhaps automatic barriers would speed things up here

Awful airport. Planes leave every 5 mins . No peace or quiet. Inconsiderate low flying pilots. Causes disruption and pain for all elderly and disabled nearby.

Poor! Being an asian I felt targeted. I was taken to some sort of interrogation place. My luggage was checked thoroughly and brutally as If I my luggage wasn’t checked at my departure. Crew was Ignorant and misguiding. It took me almost two hours to get out. I am just 18. Never ever travel through this airport if you are not White.

A conveniently situated airport that’s easy to fly in and out of. Parking, check in and security are all easy and stress free. Reasonable amount of routes to choose from, although I would prefer it if they operated EasyJet instead of Ryanair. Only big complaint is that for some reason all eateries other than the Castle Rock pub close at 6pm for some bizarre reason. I was flying out at 7.30 and was baffled as to why Frankie & Benny’s and even Starbucks were shutting up at 6pm. They told me they reopen at 3am. Why operate such weird hours when there are flights leaving all the way up to 2am!? Passengers in the airport for those 9 hours have no choices for food other than one pub.

Departures are slow. Security very slow. Not enough seating in departures if you do not want to buy food or drinks. We were kept waiting on the tarmac for 20 mins whilst our plane unloaded. Luckily it wasn't raining. Arrivals is ritual humiliation. Bus to terminal building which means waiting for the last person to get off the plane before the bus sets off. Very slow through customs. This means it can take an hour to escape the airport after your plane has landed. Airport in desperate need of airbridges to avoid need for buses.

Very disappointing. Access required, check in desk you still had to wait an age, check point was anywhere will do, flight from the furthest gate which the doors were locked, the accessible seats were miles from the outward door and no seating at gate check in. Very poor.

Needed assistance this time, staff couldn't do enough to help.

Security is absolutely miserable, lying jobsworths... inefficient and make stuff up on the go. Train your staff properly and don't say stuff is on your website and in your rules when it isn't. Thanks for the terrible experience.

The bar was open at 04:30. Top drawer.

Not the biggest of airports but has expanded since our last visit. Very busy in the bars and food area, a nit of queuing at check-in, security and passport controls etc , still a lot better than using the largest airports imho

Should be ashamed of themselves. £5 to drop people off at the airport! You thieves. Daylight robbery.

Easy and straight forward not long at security

Nice little airport fast security check in nice food restaurant designated smoking area

expensive when only collecting family taking all of 5mins

Basically no lines which is great!

The airport is pretty good up the scale. Overall it's 4 stars. There are multiple airlines that use this airport. One time my flight was delayed by 2 hours but that was my ever experience with a delayed flight. The parking is absolutely massive. Most of the spaces are occupied so when parking, you'll have to find an empty space.

Had a early flight this morning to be faced with peoples cases literally all over the airport stacked in piles not many staff on at all which you would think so in school holiday times used this airport a few times never had any problems up and till we arrived in Lanzarote and 2 of the biggest cases we had packed with just about every thing for our family holiday have gone missing and can see exactly why bad management and not enough staff at all not good enough even to be classed as an airport with what I saw this morning with 100s of cases all over the airport at this point in time would give them less stars it's called wrong people in the wrong job

If I could give a zero score I would! We recently missed a flight to Dublin due to the airport website and screens in the airport showing the incorrect departure time. The airline have informed us that this error was due to the airport. Not only have the airport refused us any compensation for the flights they will also not allow any reduction on the airport parking which has resulted in costing us nearly £50 for less than 3 hours! This was our first flight abroad in over 20 years due to my ill health and we were really looking forward to our break away!

I was really impressed with East Midlands airport. Help given from Car Park attendant on drop off and the assisted travel was second to none. I think his name was Jonathan and he went above and beyond to make our journey a pleasant and stress free one. Highly recommend this airport and all the staff. Kind regards Di Godfrey

Departing from this airport is always relatively okay, but arriving is a bloody nightmare and always so slow, whether it be no busses or stupidly slow arrival security, it puts me off using the airport completely

No toilet paper, no soap, what a welcome to the UK..

Another EMA Parking fail. Yet again, a 20 minute delay exiting SHORT STAY CAR PARK 1. And yet again, the phone and online directions to complain lead you round in a circle. At the end of the phone tree you tell your "valued customer" they may only complain online. On the EMA Parking website, there is nowhere to submit said complaint. Someone has designed a nice little earner here. No way to complain. Tonight we paid the exorbitant £8 for 20 minutes at the pay station 00:01, got stuck in the exit queue behind people who couldn't get through the single working exit barrier. Once we made it to the barrier at 00:17, we discovered why the delay: we could only leave by paying another £6. There is no response to pushing the button for help. Everyone is angry. Everyone who delays at the gate trying to call help increases the liklihood that the people behind have to pay again. This is robbery and useless systems design all rolled into one. Your Designed-by-Psychopaths systems are tarnishing the brand of the rest of the airport. Sort it out. You're as bad as Ryanair.

Got told at security that our liquid bags were too big despite them being described as airport security toiletry bags online and having used them in multiple airports before! Small airport with very little seating for number of passengers, bad WiFi and restaurants shutting at 5pm. Security queue and boarding was quick and efficient.

flying Ryanair from this Airport is the worse airport I have experienced in the World On top of this paying a kings Ransome for pick up & drop off is fraud & deception compared with Heathrow T5!?! the Q for security leading almost out the building is unacceptable. the Draconian dining £100 for alleged drop offs at the BP garage is also fraudulent. avoid this horrible facility. I have the misfortune of Flying from my local Airport & I am faced with locked doors to the Gate that I should be boarding in 5 minutes PS the parking regime is still unacceptable

At 04:30, Thursday 11 July this year, I visited East Midlands Airport, using the passenger drop off facility at the Long Stay 2 car park. I use this service quite frequently. On arrival at the barrier, the machine usually dispenses a green plastic token, providing a free 1-hour drop off. On this occassion, despite pressing the button several times, no token was issued. I therefore pressed the intercom button for assistance. And waited. There was no repsonse until I had pressed the assistance button at least half a dozen times. By which time cars had started to queue behind me waited to gain access. Eventually the intercome was answered by a very rude female assistant, who told me I had no right being there; only prebooked parking was permitted. I explained that I wanted to use the drop off facility, and the barrier was raised without any further communication. I enquired as to what I would need to do to exit the car park. I received no response and it was clear that she had simply terminated the contact. I entered the car park, dropped off my wife and proceeded to the exit, where again I pressed the intercom assistance button. This time it was answered promptly by a very polite male assistant, who apologised, saying, "No problem Sir." The barrier was raised and I exited. In conclusion, I would add that it appears a retraining issue is appropriate for the rude female assistant on duty that morning.

This is our go to airport with good long stay car parks and just off the M1, smaller than other airports but that's a good thing imo.

We must say we were very with parking staff at EMA .I left my car keys in car and did not realise until I arrived in Italy On 5th July I contacted Airport and spoke to a lady in Manchester called Dorothy and explained situation she said she would get someone to check car and she called me back with in an hour to say the keys had been found and would be left meet and greet office. The person who found them checked the car to ensure the ignition was working. He was Pete Bradley. It was such a relief to know car was safe. Well done to Dorothy and Pete Bradley. 5 star service It was lovely to pick up keys and thank Pete We would also give 5 star to mid stay 2 car park

Flew in early morning from Palma ! The arrivals place at East Midlands , was a mess dirty, tatty and just felt run down. The ladies loos were filthy and this was at 11am the sinks were all badly stained with brown stains disgusting - most of toilets dirty.

Toilets are grim. Leaks coming through the ceiling. Toilet bowls, handles, floors and basins in a dirty state. Seems to have no pride taken in the building land side.

Great airport helped my. Partner would fly from there again

Security staff were really polite, cheerful, efficient and professional.

The airport is terrible, stretched out pointlessly, dirty, the service is terrible and slow. The woman turned me into a terrorist because I overlooked a 3 ml, closed advertising sachet with a sample of the hand cream in my purse. She knocked over my suitcase for an hour and did a million tests to finally confirm that I was not a threat. And she could have just thrown it away. I invite the pompous employees of this facility to Wrocław to see how beautiful, clean and friendly the airport can be

Quite a nice airport, nice service It improves a lot from year to year, which is why I change my opinion to 5 stars

20/6 depart 27/6 return wife required assistance via wheelchair. What a faultless & superb service all the staff involved need commending would give mire than 5 stars if possible. Well done EMA

There was no one to direct the plane in for some reason but resolved after about 10 mins, only then we remained on the plane for another 20 minutes for some reason before we could de board. Passport control was as packed, however moved forward quickly.

It's pretty much my go-to airport for going anywhere. Never really had an issue with the place. I personally think that it is amazing and does everything right. I am saying this entirely because I am an avgeek and love how the airport itself is designed. A duel taxiway would've been favourable but it isn't like they get a whole lot of traffic. Yeah I don't have a whole lot to say honestly the place is great.

Really easy to get through and upon return too. I will definitely use again, very convenient for me

Easy to drop off people. £5 for 15 minutes. No traffic, pick up 10 mins and I paid £6

Simple and easy airport to fly out of and return to. Needs some long haul flights again. Can they not persuade Virgin or TUI to launch some routes?

Brilliant airport. The Burger King was top quality worker called rupsha was very nice.

Thank you to the special assistance team based at EMA. Very friendly staff, professional, the pink lanyard that was being trialled this past week worked really well. Easy to spot by staff and helpful to get to the right area for boarding. Thank you all .

Lovely airport apart from the free wifi not working at all

Too small and not the great experience it used to be. Hopelessly old fashioned and needs updating.

Worst airport to go to. They close the short stay carpark at night so you paying £5 for 15 minutes (drop off) and then £1 per minute after. Your sort of stuck if your picking any one up. I would definitely advise booking your flights to go to the other airports. The security/ airport staff are rude and need training. Never had this issue in any of the other airports. We pay for the parking, that's appreciated, but this airport is a total nightmare. Definitely not a option.

I was due to board a flight here today 14/6/24 when I experienced a massive panic attack ...All the colleagues who noticed this unfold were absolutely AWSOME I cannot thank everyone enough . Sadly I physicaly wasn't able to board the flight .but at no point was I made to feel bad or silly ..I was surrounded by very caring people which enabled me to feel safe and also shield me from other customers which eased any negative vides I was giving off to others .FANTASTIC FANTASTIC and THANK YOU ALL .

Some bad security personnel that need improvement in attitude.

A small airport, but everything is fine. Sometimes the inspection is very long and detailed (I recently came across interns and it took a very long time), but sometimes the briefing is normal. Nice service, smile and no unnecessary questions. All in all - as far as I'm concerned - I didn't notice any problems and I haven't had them during my several stays.

Expect predatory parking charges. Do not stop your car at any cost! I stopped for 1minute at 2am with no other cars on the road and received a threatening £100 penalty notice.

Unfortunately, the invention of WiFi, 4G or 5G Internet has not reached the airport in East Midlands. People from the airport staff say that the Internet is only a theory and in fact, there is no hard evidence of its existence.

Always quick to get through, airport parking easy too

Just witnessed my boyfriend experiencing racism by the border force police. I am an English white lady and they stopped him because he is black and asked judgemental questions. They NEVER asked me a question once!! Am completely disgusted with how he was treated considering we are one of the biggest multicultural cities in the UK. I interrupted to show our taxi tracking system of our taxi arriving. They suddenly changed and the interrogation stopped when I said they were being racist. Absolutely appalled, upset and terribly ashamed to see and witness this as just happened. East midlands Airport sort yourself and staff out!!!!.