East Midlands Airport is an international airport in the East Midlands of England, close to Castle Donington in northwestern Leicestershire, between Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham ; Leicester is to the south and Lincoln northeast. It serves the majority of the East Midlands region consisting of Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Southern Lincolnshire, Rutland and Derbyshire. The airfield was originally built as a Royal Air Force station known as RAF Castle Donington in 1943, before being redeveloped as a civilian airport in 1965.