Airport ‘prepared for busy summer season’
EAST MIDLANDS HAS ESCAPED LONG QUEUES SEEN ELSEWHERE
EAST Midlands Airport is “in a good place” to avoid the travel chaos seen at terminals elsewhere in the country this summer, a spokesman says.
Scenes at the Castle Donington airport have been in stark contrast to those at other sites, such as Birmingham and Manchester, where travellers have faced long queues.
A spokesman for East Midlands said: “Two-thirds of our total annual passengers fly through here between April and October.
“The winter months are considerably quieter in terms of passenger traffic, so we had a bit more time to prepare.”
The removal of Covid-19 restrictions has resulted in increased demand for flights.
But some airports have struggled to recruit staff to deal with the extra passengers.
“At East Midlands, we too have found it challenging but are now in a strong position having successfully recruited to many of our frontline security roles in particular,” the spokesman said.
“We’ve also put in place mitigation and resilience measures to cope with sudden increases in passenger volumes at busier times, for example at Easter and for the coming halfterm.
“Many staff have had to work more flexibly to cope with peak times and surges in demand.
“We still have roles to fill in car parking, for example, and some of the retailers and food and drink providers need more staff to be able to open for more hours but, overall, good progress has been made.
“We are anticipating a busy summer and forecasts suggest we could be welcoming back 75 per cent or 80 per cent of pre-covid passenger volumes in the peak summer months.
“We’re confident that we’re in a good place to respond to the demand for summer getaways and we hope that every passenger who uses this airport has a smooth start to their holiday or break.”