Ryanair increases routes and aircraft at Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Budget carrier, Ryanair, is adding three summer routes to its Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) operations.
The Irish-based airline will fly to Corfu, Lanzarote and Paphos, taking its total routes from the airport to 32 during the summer, creating an 11% increase in its traffic at the airport.
It expects to handle 2.2 million passengers at Liverpool this year.
And it will add a further aircraft, a Boeing 737, to its Liverpool base, which it says is a $100m investment, and takes its total aircraft at LJLA to five.
It says the move will create 30 jobs for pilots and cabin crew.
Overall, Ryanair estimates its Liverpool operation supports 1,600 local jobs, including 150 pilot, cabin crew and engineer roles.
The Lanzarote route is being carried over from the winter schedule, and will operate from Liverpool every Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday throughout the summer period.
Its two new Greek routes, to Corfu and Paphos, will provide two flights per week for Corfu, on Thursdays and Sundays, and one to Paphos, every Thursday.
Ryanair’s Head of Comms, Jade Kirwan, said the new routes demonstrate the carrier’s confidence in its Liverpool business.
She said: “Liverpool is performing as expected. It does quite well and is very stable. It’s a positive performance from Liverpool.”
Ryanair’s confidence is demonstrated by the decision to add a further aircraft at Liverpool, she added: “We don’t make decisions like that willy nilly.”
The Irish carrier will also base an extra aircraft at Manchester Airport this summer, taking its total there to 17 aircraft.
Ms Kirwan said both Liverpool and Manchester represent a key part of the carrier’s overall network: “It is important to have both airports and serve both catchments. It is a phenomenal catchment area.”
And she said passenger behaviour throughout the North West following the Coronavirus pandemic has returned to pretty much normal: “People are loving the sun destinations,” she said.
Popular routes with North West travellers remain the sunny locations, particularly Alicante and Malaga, as well as the usual key city routes.
