Tens of thousands of holidaymakers have been blowing away the winter blues and jetting off from East Midlands Airport in search of much-needed sunshine.
With snow, freezing temperatures, rain and relentlessly miserable weather over the winter and early spring, many people have decided to escape and head for warmer climates.
As a result, East Midlands Airport has recorded an increase in passenger numbers this winter compared with the same period last year.
Despite the wintry weather and interruptions to flight schedules due to snow, a total of more than 1.6 million passengers flew to and from East Midlands Airport, in Castle Donington, between October 2017 and March 2018. This is a three per cent increase on last year's winter season.
Bosses said this had been achieved thanks, in part, to new routes and increased frequency. Ryanair launched a new twice-weekly route to Seville at the end of last year, while Thomas Cook resumed flights to Egypt in February.
The lure of warmer climes has proved irresistible to visitors across the East Midlands following a prolonged and at times bitterly cold winter. As a result of an earlier Easter, holidaymakers have taken the opportunity to grab some sunshine.
This has led to passenger numbers at the start of April exceeding forecasts, which bosses said bodes well for the start of the summer season. At present, they are up 4.2 per cent on this time last year.
The top 10 destinations that passengers have been flying to this Easter are:
- Alicante
- Tenerife
- Malaga
- Palma
- Faro
- Dublin
- Lanzarote
- Belfast City
- Gran Canaria
- Fuerteventura
Howard Ebison, East Midlands Airport's commercial director, said: "Despite a difficult winter which brought much of the UK to a standstill, our winter passenger numbers have exceeded last year's.
"We're delighted with the start of April too. Unsurprisingly, eight of the top 10 destinations that travellers have been flying to this Easter are places where prolonged spells of sunshine are more likely."
Building on last year's summer season, the busiest since 2008, holidaymakers looking for guaranteed sunshine this summer will benefit from a selection of flights to the most popular holiday destinations such as the Canaries, the Balearic Islands, mainland Spain and Portugal, and even Mexico and Florida.
New summer routes are:
- Jet2 Bodrum, Turkey
- Ryanair – Seville (continuation of their winter service)
Next winter, passengers will have even more choice as Jet2.com and Jet2holidays are flying its busiest winter flights and holidays programme from East Midlands Airport.
This will see more than 300,000 seats on sale to 16 winter sun, city and ski destinations for winter 2018 and 2019 - an increase of 11,000 extra seats.
