Liverpool Airport sees 15% first quarter growth

LIVERPOOL’S John Lennon Airport has seen 140,000 more passengers pass through its departure lounge in the first three months of 2010.

The additional services being operated by airlines such as KLM, Eastern Airways, easyJet and Ryanair have contributed to this like-for-like increase.

It means that more than 15% more passengers have chosen to use the airport so far this year than they did in the same period in 2009.

March was also the fifth consecutive month of passenger growth for JLA which makes it one of the country’s fastest growing airports.

The airport is currently undergoing a £12m development program which will see the opening of a new passenger security screening area in June which is three times the size of the existing facility.

Expansion of the departure lounge is also taking place which will bring several new retail stores to the airport by the autumn.

Neil Pakey, deputy chief executive for Peel Airports, said that Ryanair’s new service to Rimini in Sicily, easyJet’s service to the Isle of Man and KLM’s additional departures to Amsterdam will further boost footfall.

He said: “Liverpool is continuing to buck the trend and is now one of the UK’s best performing airports in terms of passenger growth.

“More and more passengers are now flying via the airport and improved accessibility from across the region means that JLA is becoming the airport of choice for growing numbers of travelers from right across the North West.”