East Midlands Airport’s £6.2bn economic boost supports businesses and jobs
Steve Griffiths, East Midlands Airport Managing Director
Would you be surprised to hear that East Midlands Airport’s total impact to the UK economy was £6.2bn last year?
The huge contribution the airport makes to the economy is something I am incredibly proud of, because it means we’re a vital part of the region we serve – a catalyst for local jobs and the growth of local industries, as well as being the gateway to four million people’s holidays every year and the UK’s largest pure freight operation.
If you think that £6.2bn is impressive, that's a figure that’s grown by £2bn in the space of 12 months, as our role powering trade for the region and UK as a whole has got even bigger.
Click here to wach our video 'East Midlands economic impact unpacked'
That's because the largest contributor to our economic impact is the cargo we handle every night. Freight-related productivity makes up around half of the airport’s total economic impact, alongside operational activity including passenger and cargo operations and supply chain expenditure. Major freight operators based here like DHL, UPS and FedEx, along with other cargo activity, accounted for around half of all of the airport’s economic impact. This has been driven by a 12.5% increase in cargo volumes – topping 400,000 tonnes for the first time since the pandemic when international air cargo was at an all-time high.
That sharp rise – accounting for a third of all UK air cargo growth last year - is partly down to us attracting seven new airlines to start operations last year, including Etihad Cargo and China’s largest cargo airline SF Express, both of which have chosen East Midlands as their only UK gateway.
A measure of our importance for high-value, time-sensitive and supply-chain-critical goods is that an average tonne of freight at East Midlands is 34 times the value of that handled at other UK ports – with export goods totalling £13bn last year.
That's because we support the success of key industries like advanced manufacturing, one of the key industries in our region. They rely on the airport to import specialist parts to turn them into high value products that are then sent around the world. Nurturing sectors like this is vital to the UK's economic success, with advanced manufacturing recognised in the Government's industrial strategy as a key sector to support high value jobs. This provides opportunities for people to reach their full potential and enables businesses from all over the country to trade on the global stage.
Businesses like Leicester-based Ventola Projects, which relies on the airport to supply its specialist lighting systems around the globe – helping it to grow from a sole trader in 1989 to a multi-million-pound business. Or Nottingham-based Attenborough Medical, whose time-critical medical implants travel between its bases in the UK and Belgium via the airport.
Our cargo operation is a major part of the jobs the airport supports around the UK - which now stands at 52,000, with 7,500 of them on site.
Our region particularly benefits from our freight expertise, helping it to become a magnet for firms operating in sectors like aerospace, the automotive sector, pharmaceuticals and life sciences. That saw us support 15,430 in the East Midlands and 6,520 in the West Midlands last year, which benefited from an economic boost of £1.5bn and £569m respectively through our operational activity.
Of course, our passenger operation continues to be a crucial and successful part of our operation, also contributing £100m to the economy through extra business productivity and inbound tourism. We remain the first choice for millions of people a year, who prefer an effortless start to their holidays and have benefited from substantial terminal improvements. We know we’re doing something right, as 97% of our customers rate the airport good to excellent.
And we are building on our success with ongoing talks with airlines to expand our passenger network, alongside the continuing development of plans to grow our cargo operation to maximise its potential.
We will continue to ensure that as a linchpin in the UK’s international trade network, the people and businesses in the areas around us benefit from our presence.