East Midlands Airport (EMA) in North West Leicestershire

Today I was driving to pick up a friend from the airport, I had set a short parking on the navigator. Upon arrival, I followed all the signs and drove to the entrance to the parking lot non of enterece machines worked ended up driving around looking for place i can park car spend 25 minutes crossing around hope until come a cross another short stay parking. This sistem is really confusing I hope i have get tiket for driving an reversing non stop looking for parking because it's like a trap for drivers that drive to East midlands airport rarely.

Bloody brilliant, car park to departure lounge in less than 30 minutes! No plastic bags for liquids, shoes stayed on, roll on all 🇬🇧 airports catching up!

Always a nice airport to fly from, easy to navigate and close to Nottingham!

Held up on motorway - late arriving. Only one person in front if us at security and could leave liquids and laptops in bags:-) Unfortunately, nearly every bag was taken off to be checked and swabbed. Never show frustration! Asif seemed to take twice as long to check my rucksack and bum bag as the other checker. He seemed to find this amusing, smiling to himself as he completely emptied my rucksack of its book sandwich box and snacks. Good job no knickers in there!! I was relied when another member of staff came up - I thought things might speed up!. No :-( She started looking at the contents of my rucksack - now all over the side and suggested he swap my lunch box. An extremely time consuming and unpleasant experience - Manchester next time!!

Active airport during summer less active in winter. easily accessible with reasonable transport links by bus but no trains

Worse website ever, you cannot find out who flies for the airport or where to. Went to leave feedback, but they just want all your personal data to sell

I fly frequently from East Midlands and has always been a great experience. Recently I left my car parked in the airport and lost the car keys , just realised that when I was already in my holiday destination, I’ve called East Midlands and asked about the keys, it had been found and when i landed back in the UK there was a lady in the passport queue waiting for me with my car keys , cannot recommend this airport enough , the staff is amazing and so helpful.

£5 charge to drop off pick up is daylight robbery. Taxis have to go through the same paywall and when it’s busy all vehicles can backed up trying to get through the payment barriers. Also be aware Uber drivers may try to charge the £5 on top separately even though it is included in the overall charge. Could be a genuine lack of knowledge but just putting it out there.

Travel from East Midlands often as we prefer it. The last time we was there was October last year so you can imagine the surprise we had last week middle Jan 2025 when we got to security! Wow it’s finally happened, New Scanners, we travel with carry ons so it was so exciting to see that we didn’t have to take liquids & electrical’s out ! The new area is so modern and looks like something out of men in black - staff were friendly and the whole process was fast & much more easier. Making us love this airport even more. ✈️

Can't fault staff very nice friendly

I will share with you my experience of the airport environment and the airport itself is very clear, small, cozy and the staff is very helpful..regarding arrival..the airport from one side is an absolute disaster, it is not easy to get there. Therefore, I recommend navigation and not following the signs, otherwise everything is OK. Summed up underlined... ...lil and cozy little Airport Shack ♡ :) ♡

Very easy to get about and clean and lots of food options in the airport

Obviously not got the right staff on tonight. Trying to help a vulnerable adult through the passport scanners for the first time and all I get is shouted at by two very miserable jobsworths!!! Remind me why I hate coming home from abroad!!!

Arrived late at night from Alicante on 11/1/25. We used Special Assistance as usual and they were all great, also as usual, particularly Joanna. She went over and above and was so friendly and helpful. Thank you Joanna

Love flying from this airport. It might be small, but that means it's easy to get through security. Parking is literally across the road.

Airport services could be definitely better

Still as dated as ever. Needs a complete overhaul and refurb. Ok for the 80’s but not now. Expensive too was terrible snacks and coffee. Poor.

Awful place, toilets well I've been in better at a rock festival. Electronic gates are hilarious, big guess will it work? won't it work? usually the latter, oh and the chap that looked important in his high vis just stood looking at them as if they were the gateway to another world. Then you walk outside into a building site where chaos reigns almighty. What an absolute dump

Drop off and parking charges are ridiculous but airport is nice. Lorraine in duty free is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise soulless experience.

A bit small but not a long queue

I bought extra luggage for Ryan air, and my luggage fits well in the frame. But I was still charged 70 gbp. Why as airport staff you do such indecent work for the worst airline in the world? Never ever fly Ryan air, no way!

Disguising service as usual. 2 and a half hours late landing and the baggage didn't turn up for an hour just stud around with kids kicking off.

Shocking ! What a rip off to pick up and drop off

It was one of the quickest airport experiences I've ever had. Both ways. Early December

Good ambiance and great service from the staff

We flew out of east midlands last Friday 27th December and they had the new scanners. Didn't have to take anything out of bags.

EXPENSIVE!!! And slow services. 5£ Entry drop off. My experience is very bad. When I fly again avoid East Midlands

OK, here's my process. When I fly from EMA I tend to go to meet and greet, which is clearly marked on the road in and is an easy drop-off at the office. Then I grab a trolley (albeit a returnable quid, which is free across Europe but we tend to suck as a country compared to Europe). I then go to fast track, which gets me through pretty damn quick. Then we head to a clearly signposted gate for our flight. The whole process is fine...staff tend to be pretty damned efficient and I have no issues. I'm deducting one star because there's not enough seats whilst waiting for the flights to open, but that's my only grief. I'm alright with EMA.

What the hell is going off with this poor excuse of a airport the security section is a joke tired dated airport come on move with the times spend some monet on the place ffs

Edit* autumn 2024. Nowhere near as bad as it was (see below my prev reviews!) QR codes in the bar area so you can just order to your table. This was quick even when it was pretty busy. The whole upstairs has been redone and is a much better use of space. On the return there was no wait at all for the passport machines. I know that it's more luck as to if your plane is the only one arriving... But still... It was the first time in years that I've not been waiting for 45-60 min! Edit* 2023 ... Still the worst airport ever. Miscommunication from the staff and flight boards. Half the places are shut. Not enough seating. Boiling hot. Way too crowded. Everywhere is a pig stye. 19 deep queue at the bar. Delays (though I appreciate that is happening everywhere currently). Really poor overall. Have recently been from Birmingham and it was far superior. Oh and the men's loos at check in were closed... And from what my husband said I feel extremely sorry for any disabled persons wanting to use their loo as all the blokes had had to use it and made a huge mess. 2022 Passport control for arrivals has been awful for years now. Waiting an hour most times whilst they force everyone through the 2 or 3 working passport machines whilst the security sit twiddling their thumbs, only checking in families with young kids. Going from other local airports is definitely preferable. They have also switched from superdrug in departures back to boots... Which is much more expensive and less choice.

I fly frequently from East Midlands Airport, and while it’s generally fine, there are a few areas that could be improved. One of my main frustrations is with the security staff. It feels like the rules change depending on the mood of the person on duty. For instance, I use a liquids bag that is the correct size and approved for airport security. However, every other time I fly, the staff insists that I repack my items into one of their single-use plastic bags, despite my bag being the correct size. This not only creates unnecessary waste but also disrupts my packing process. The first time I flew with it, I was allowed to repack my toiletries into the bag, but more recently, a staff member in a particularly bad mood flat-out refused to let me do so and just tossed everything into their bag without any organisation. It’s like trying to pack clothes into a suitcase without folding them—nothing fits. Things got even worse when the same staff member decided to classify my solid deodorant stick as a liquid. A solid deodorant is obviously not a liquid, and this is consistent with the guidelines at most other airports, where solid deodorants are never questioned. My partner, for example, passed through security with his deodorant stick in his backpack without issue. The inconsistency in how the rules are enforced, especially when it leads to waste and frustration, makes it impossible to guess what the requirements are. If they depend on the staff member's mood rather than the actual rules, it’s impossible to know what to expect. It would be great if staff could apply the rules more consistently and handle passengers' belongings with more care. Another odd thing is the parking situation. You can park at East Midlands for a week for a somewhat acceptable fee, but to park overnight, it’s nearly £50. At one point, the cost of overnight parking was more than my outbound and return flights combined, which feels completely unreasonable.

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 👍🏻

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.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

Easy and straight forward not long at security

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

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..