Flight radar East Midlands Airport
The radar above is centred on East Midlands Airport (EMA), between Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. Click any aircraft for its photo, flight number, route with progress, altitude and speed; press Follow to keep it centred as it flies the approach or departure path.
East Midlands in short
By day, EMA is a leisure airport: Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI fly holidaymakers to Europe and beyond. By night, it transforms into one of the UK’s biggest cargo hubs. DHL operates its UK air hub here, joined by UPS and Royal Mail freighters. For radar watchers this is the airport that never really sleeps.
History
The airport opened in 1965 on the site of a wartime RAF station, built specifically to serve the three East Midlands cities. Its central location and motorway access made it a natural home for express freight from the 1980s onward.
Watching EMA at night
Open the radar after 23:00 and you will see what makes EMA special: waves of Boeing 737 and 757 freighters converging from across Europe, turning around within the hour, and heading out again before dawn. Few UK radar pictures change character so completely between day and night.
Frequently asked questions
Why so many flights at night? Express cargo. DHL’s UK hub is at EMA.
Which holiday airlines fly from EMA? Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI; see departures.
Can I track cargo flights too? Yes, freighters appear on the radar like any other aircraft.