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John Dundas · Guest

EMA NAME CHANGE IS 'A NEGATIVE STEP'

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=64387&command=displ
ayContent&sourceNode=63914&contentPK=6541891
09:30 - 29 July 2003

Opposition to changing the name of East Midlands Airport to identify it with
Nottingham is growing.

Derek Mapp, chairman of East Midlands Development Agency, this week added
his voice to the chorus of dissent.

BMI Baby, the low-cost airline based at the airport, has recently begun
advertising in Paris and Amsterdam giving the destination as Nottingham
(EMA).

It claims that more potential visitors would recognise the name Nottingham,
because it is the largest city in the region and is associated with the
famous legend of Robin Hood.

But Mr Mapp is firmly against such a change. He points out one of the
region's strengths is that it includes the three cities of Derby, Nottingham
and Leicester.

He said: "We don't want the region to be promoted using just one of those
cities, because that would be a very negative step.

"The visitors to Rolls-Royce in Derby are just as important as those dealing
with the financial services available in Nottingham or the ethnic mix of
visitors to Leicester.

"It's not a question of the size of each of the cities - it's the 1.4
million people living in and around the three cities together.

"As a region, we are relatively new, and using the name East Midlands
Airport helps us to build the brand name.

"I find it interesting that people talk about London Luton Airport - you
have a long way to go when you come out of Luton to get to London. We are
honest, because our airport does serve the East Midlands.

"As an agency, we take every opportunity to promote the East Midlands and it
would be a disappointing step backwards to use the name of just one of the
cities.

"There seems to be a widespread perception that people have heard of
Nottingham - but do they really know where it is?

"Would they know they could fly to Nottingham - if they really wanted to
travel to Derby?"

Three weeks ago, an Evening Telegraph reporter tested the BMI Baby claim by
travelling to Paris and asking residents to locate Nottingham on a map of
the UK. Most of the people placed Nottingham in Scotland, near Wales or in
southern England.

Last week, the Evening Telegraph also revealed that BMI Baby's in-flight
magazine Babyonboard, distributed free to more than 500,000 passengers,
wrongly stated that Nottingham is the nearest city to EMA.

In fact, Derby is the closest city by a margin of four miles. The airline
claimed the magazine statement was "a printing error".

Tony Davis, managing director of BMI Baby, has again defended the actions of
the airline.

He said: "We wish to attract more passengers to come here from abroad, but
at the moment no foreign airlines fly to East Midlands Airport. Why is that?
Probably it is because nobody outside this country knows where the East
Midlands is on the map."

Callum Johnstone · Guest

"John Dundas" <j.m.dundas (AT) btinternet (DOT) spamcom> wrote