Editing East Midlands (section)

===Airports===
[[File:East Midlands2.JPG|thumb|220px|left|East Midlands Airport (looking west)]]
[[East Midlands Airport]] in [[North West Leicestershire]] is situated in proximity to the region's largest cities; {{convert|14|mile}} from the centres of [[Derby, England|Derby]] and [[Nottingham]], with central [[Leicester]] being {{convert|21|mile}} away and [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]] further north east being {{convert|43|mile}} away. The airport is the region's biggest public airport, used by over 4&nbsp;million passengers annually.

Rivalry between the region's three biggest cities has led to a long-running discussion about the identity of both the airport, and region, with the East Midlands rarely found on any non-political map of the UK. The name was at one point changed to Nottingham East Midlands Airport so as to include the name of the city that is supposedly most internationally recognisable. However, the airport has a Derby phone number and postcode, and is in Leicestershire, but is officially assigned to Nottingham by [[IATA]]. As a result of the dispute, the name change reverted.

[[File:DHL freight planes - geograph.org.uk - 165255.jpg|thumb|right|Air cargo aircraft at EMA]]
Three of the world's four main international air-freight companies (integrators) have their UK operations at EMA: [[DHL]], [[United Parcel Service|UPS]] and [[TNT Express]] (TNT bought by UPS); [[FedEx]] have theirs at [[London Stansted Airport|Stansted]]. It is the second-largest freight airport in the UK after [[London Heathrow Airport|Heathrow]], but most freight from EMA is carried on dedicated planes, whereas most freight from Heathrow is carried on passenger planes (bellyhold). [[Royal Mail]] have their main airport hubs at Heathrow and EMA, as EMA is conveniently near the [[M1 motorway (Great Britain)|M1]], [[A42 road (Great Britain)|A42]] and [[A50 road (Great Britain)|A50]]. Heathrow takes some 60 per cent of UK air freight, and EMA some 10 per cent, with Stansted, Manchester and Gatwick next. Air freight has grown at EMA from 1994 to 2004 from about 10,000 to over 250,000&nbsp;tonnes. The main hours of cargo flying are from 20:00–05:00; domestic cargo flies into the airport in the evening, then from 23:30 to 01:30 cargo flies to European capitals and from 03:00–05:00 from Europe to EMA. It is the UK's twelfth-largest passenger airport; the runway is the UK's sixth-longest at {{convert|2900|m|ft}}. [[Royal Mail]] flights from EMA go to [[Belfast]], [[Edinburgh]], [[Inverness]], [[Aberdeen]], [[Newcastle upon Tyne|Newcastle]], [[Exeter]] and [[Bournemouth]], and it is the largest UK Royal Mail air hub, with eleven flights per night. DHL is the main route carrier at EMA by far with 20 flights per night, UPS have 6, and TNT have 2 (Belfast and Liège); for hubs in Europe, DHL flies to [[Leipzig]], UPS to [[Cologne]], and TNT at [[Liège]].

Smaller airports in the region include [[Retford Gamston Airport]], [[Nottingham Airport]], [[Leicester Airport]], [[Hucknall Airfield]], [[Sywell Aerodrome]], [[Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome]] and [[Humberside Airport]]. [[Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield]] lies just outside the East Midlands in [[South Yorkshire]].