If you live close to East Midlands Airport then you'll probably be used to the frequent sight of planes jetting off from the airport. However, there has been a strange change in some of the flight patterns recently, which has been noticed even by those who no longer are tempted to shriek in delight at a low flying aircraft.
Ryanair planes have been taking off, looping around in the sky, then coming in to land again, but just moments before touching down starting to ascend. They then repeat the trick all over again.
Why you might ask? Well so did our sister publication Derbyshire Live, and they wanted to know more.
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East Midlands Airport, or EMA for short is a busy airport. It hosts airlines including TUI, Jet2 and Ryanair, and according to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), had more than 830,000 passengers pass through its doors in 2021 - that's despite the pandemic restrictions. As well as being the perfect spot for Nottingham folk and those from the surrounding areas to jet off from, it's also the UK's busiest 'pure' cargo airport, according to owner Manchester Airport Group, and hub for DHL, UPS, FedEx and Royal Mail. But what is the cause of all the unusual flying patterns?
While some have speculated that there has been some sort of mid-air emergency, the actual reason is much more simple, and fortunately much less worrying. A spokesperson for EMA explained that the airport is a training hub for Ryanair pilots.
Cadets must undertake several take off and landing attempts prior to getting their wings, and as a result can often be seen looping around the airport as part of their training. Repeat landing and take-offs are considered a routine part of a pilot's training.
In fact, the plane which is seen looping around is the same plane. Ryanair flight number 100T is shown by FlightRadar - a popular website which allows users to track any flight in the world - as making these training flights every few days, and sometimes several times a day. This is despite being listed as "flights to Shannon".
The flights can be as short as 20 minutes to nearly two hours, in some cases. The plane used is a Boeing 737-73S aircraft, whereas the company usually uses Boeing 737-800 planes on its passenger routes.
In 2021, 1,413 test and training flights were made from EMA, according to data from the CAA, but it doesn't say whether all of those were completed by Ryanair trainee pilots. Between January 1 and April 30, 398 test and training flights were made.
Why are they listed as heading to Shannon? The town, in the west of the Republic of Ireland, has been a Ryanair destination since 1986, and in May 2022 the airline opened its first heavy maintenance plant at the airport, costing millions of pounds. It is likely that the flight is listed as heading to Shannon for administrative reasons. In any event, there are no passenger flights between EMA and Shannon, as confirmed by a simple check of the airport's departures and arrivals board.
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