EasyJet have announced that they will close their base at East Midlands Airport on 5th January and move the capacity to more profitable airports.

Passengers who have booked to travel from Nottingham East Midlands Airport after January 5th will be emailed over the next few days and offered either a free transfer to another easyJet flight, a free transfer to a bmiBaby flight, or a full refund.

EasyJet operate 10 routes from East Midlands Airport to Prague, Nice, Venice, Faro, Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga, Ibiza, Palma and Geneva. The airport said that all these routes will continue to be covered by other low-cost carriers.

EasyJet are also cutting capacity at its home base at London Luton Airport by 20% because rising airport costs there mean Luton is no longer competitive. The 20% reduction will mean that the airline stops routes to Athens, Cagliari and Vienna and reduces frequencies on routes including Alicante, Dortmund, Edinburgh, Geneva, Glasgow, Nice and Paris.

The number of aircraft based at Luton will remain at 16, but the departing passenger volumes will fall from 2.6m in 2008 down to 1.9m.