The new boss of East Midlands Airport has vowed to make it the go-to airport for business people wanting to avoid the hustle and bustle of Gatwick and Heathrow.
Karen Smart - who became managing director at the Castle Donington airport five weeks ago - has also outlined plans to make more of the underused East Midlands Parkway railway station, and is lobbying the Department for Transport to increase the number of services stopping there.
On top of that, the former Stansted Airport director wants to build stronger links with European hub airports such as Frankfurt and Berlin to connect the region to the biggest global markets.
Mrs Smart said she would even like to create a college on the airport campus to train the next generation of airport workers and staff for the neighbouring Pegasus Business Park, growing UPS, DHL and Royal Mail operations and the £700 million East Midlands Gateway logistics park being built on a vast site to the north.
She said: “There are 8,000 jobs on this site, including 750 directly employed by the airport.
“The new logistics park is not directly part of the airport but will become part of the bigger regional story along with Donington Park and the big M&S warehouse near here, and we need to pull that whole story together.
“My key focus is around connectivity – connecting importers and exporters and businesses to the flights they want; connecting people to the jobs on offer here – and there’s a need for leisure connectivity, too.
“At Stansted, for instance, we had a partnership with Harlow College and gifted some land to them to build on to train people to work within the airport. That opens in September.
“That could be something we start to look at here.”
East Midlands Trains’ current timetable leaves East Midlands Parkway station without a service for up to 40 minutes of every hour – and the two trains each hour to London St Pancras are within a few minutes of each other.
Only 300,000 passenger journeys were made between the station and airport in 2016 – around 820 people a day. By contrast, a quarter of Stansted passengers use the train.
Mrs Smart said: “Heathrow and Gatwick are full and Stansted is filling up fast, so there is an opportunity for Londoners to come up on the Midlands Mainline to Parkway.
“We also want to encourage staff to come from areas they may not be travelling from now and the station could play a part in that.
“Parkway is a fabulous station, but it’s all about having reliable transport at the right time.
“We are working with the Department for Transport in the run-up to the new franchise and want more frequent trains.
“Another issue is that last mile of getting from the station to the airport.”
The 51-year-old was previously director of landside operations at Stansted, and before that was an engineer and senior air traffic controller in the RAF.
She replaced Andy Cliffe at East Midlands last month after he left to become chief executive of the company responsible for operating the M6 toll road, in the West Midlands.
Some five million passengers used East Midlands Airport last year, while 365,000 tonnes of cargo passed through it – both of which Mrs Smart wants to see grow.
She said: “I see this airport as a huge asset for the Midlands as a whole.
“The passenger side is really important and we aspire to grow that but what’s so unique is the cargo side of things here.
“If you look at Heathrow they are the hub of the UK, which is fantastic for the UK – and I see East Midlands like that for cargo.
“If anyone orders something on Amazon Prime there’s a likelihood it will come from Europe through East Midlands.
“Last year, Amazon went from six flights a week to 38 and it is a sector that continues to get bigger.”
We've launched our very own app for Android and Apple devices which can be tailored to deliver the news and sport that you're interested in.
To download the IOS app click here.
To download the Android app click here.
