Almost 400,000 pre-flight sandwiches eaten by East Midlands Airport customers last year
A trusty ham and cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee are the pre-flight food and drink favourites of East Midlands Airport passengers.
The centrally-located gateway has today revealed the most popular purchases among its 2m annual outbound passengers as the school holiday season gets into full swing.
Sales figures from East Midlands’ wide-ranging bars and restaurants have been crunched to discover the trends, including:
· East Midlands Airport customers ate 390,028 sandwiches last year – that’s more than 1,000 per day
· The most popular was ham and cheese – representing 10% of the total – followed by chicken and bacon and BLT
· Passengers drank 884 cups of coffee per day, totalling 322,670 over the year. Top pick among coffee types was latte/macchiato, followed by americano, cappuccino and flat white
· Walkers cheese and onion flavour were the top selling crisps, making up 25% of more than 160,000 packets of crisps sold – next popular were Walkers ready salted and salt and vinegar
· And East Midlands customers love a burger before they fly, with 160,311 consumed – the BK Whopper being the most popular at 41,713
· Next best favourites for hot meals were Castle Rock’s Chicken Souvlaki and Frankie and Benny’s All Day Breakfast at just under 7,000 each
· The most popular beer was San Miguel, with 277,047 drunk in the departure lounge last year – 56% of a total 491,084 pints of draught beer and cider sold.
There have been recent upgrades of retail and food and drink outlets as part of a £120m investment programme at East Midlands. This saw a brand-new restaurant, Alembic, open in April, serving up Mediterranean-style small plates as well as locally produced spirits. A new bar, The Yard by Castle Rock, also opened last year, complementing Castle Rock’s larger Bar and Kitchen upstairs in the departure lounge, which underwent a refurbishment last year.
The airport’s Escape Lounge has also been expanded and refitted this year, offering more customers an enhanced experience to enjoy pre-flight hot and cold food with wines, beers and spirits in comfortable surroundings.
Other food and drink options in the airport’s departure lounge include Starbucks, Burger King, Frankie & Benny’s, Pork & Pickle and Gregg’s at arrivals.
Meanwhile on the retail side of things, JD Sports re-opened in the largest retail unit in the departure lounge last year, offering a wider range of clothing to consider before heading on holiday. Other retail outlets on offer at the airport are World Duty Free, Boots, Accessorize, InMotion, and four WHSmith stores – two landside and two airside.
The perfect holiday page-turner is popular with East Midlands Airport customers, with latest statistics revealing that 70,634 books were sold last year, or 193 a day. And 664,367 bottles of water, or 1,820 a day, were sold. The airport has also recently installed new water fountains for anyone who wants to refill bottles.
Director of Customer Services and Planning at East Midlands Airport Mike Grimes said: “We’re really pleased with the improvements we’ve recently made to the food and drink and retail offer for our customers.
“We have a range of outlets to meet the needs of the two million people who on arrival at the airport each year are often hungry, thirsty and eager to make that last-minute purchase before going away. We’re happy to ensure their holidays start at the airport with a relaxed experience.”