Airport Lift — Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire's premier airport, seaport and resort transfer service.
Book Now
Blog

Nottingham to East Midlands Airport: the complete guide

Distance, routes, drive times, parking, taxi prices and every practical detail you need for the shortest airport hop in the East Midlands.

2025-12-08 · 6 min read

East Midlands Airport (EMA) is the closest major airport to Nottingham — 16 miles, 25 minutes door-to-terminal in typical conditions. Here's everything you need to know.

Route

A453 from Nottingham → M1 J24 → EMA. The A453 upgrade a few years back made this route almost bulletproof. There is no alternative worth using.

Drive times by time of day

  • Overnight: 22 minutes.
  • 4–6am (charter peak): 25 minutes.
  • 7–9am: 35 minutes (A453 slow inbound to Nottingham direction — outbound to EMA is fine).
  • 9am–3pm: 25 minutes.
  • 3–6pm: 35 minutes (rush hour builds).
  • Evening: 25 minutes.

Airlines & routes

EMA is a Ryanair, Jet2 and TUI base. Big on Alicante, Palma, Faro, Malaga, Antalya, Krakow, Prague, Corfu, Rhodes, and a growing list of city breaks. No long-haul — for that, use Birmingham or Manchester.

Terminal & security

One compact terminal. Security is efficient off-peak but genuinely brutal 4–6:30am on summer weekends — 45-minute queues are normal. New CT scanners are rolling out but not fully live yet.

Parking

See our detailed East Midlands parking guide. Short version: pre-booked long-stay from £45/week, taxi is usually better value for 2+ travellers.

Taxi from Nottingham

Our fixed fare is £35 one way, £70 return. Includes flight tracking and 1 hour free waiting on return pickups. See our Nottingham to East Midlands page for full details and to book.

Timing rule

Check-in closes 40 minutes before departure (Ryanair, Jet2). Leave home 2h 30min before your scheduled departure and you'll never miss a flight.

Ready to book your transfer?

Get a fixed price in 30 seconds — no account required.

Get a quote

More from the blog

Why we need your full pick-up address (and what happens if we do not have it)

House number, street, postcode. Here is why a partial address is the single most common cause of a delayed airport pick-up, and how our system handles it.

Multi-stop airport transfers: adding vias without surprise charges

Collecting a friend on the way, dropping a case at home, a second address in another town — here is how vias are priced, ordered and reversed on returns.

Airport transfers for large groups: how we price two vehicles as one booking

Twelve passengers, ten suitcases, one flight. Here is how our booker builds the cheapest working vehicle combination and keeps it as a single booking.

How our return airport transfer discount actually works

Book both legs together and the return discount comes off automatically — in whole pounds, with a breakdown that adds up. Here is exactly how it is calculated.

Flying from Heathrow out of Nottingham? Get the terminal right

Heathrow's four terminals are miles apart and airlines move between them. Here is a Nottingham traveller's guide to landing at the right door first time.

Nottingham to Stansted Airport: A14 or M25? Here is the quick way

Stansted is around 2 hours 30 from Nottingham if you route it properly. Here is the road we use, the timing for early Ryanair banks and what the fare covers.