Strong year of growth for Liverpool John Lennon
PASSENGER numbers grew 8% in 2015 to 4.3 million at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. making it the busiest year since 2012.
The airport, which is owned by Peel Group, said it had ended the year on a high, with December passenger throughput almost 15% higher than the same period last year, representing the 11th consecutive month of growth with 310,000 passengers.
Chief executive Andrew Cornish said: “Looking back 2015 has been an excellent year for the airport. We have made significant progress, delivering on our objectives of increasing the number of airlines and choice of services available, with the business seeing a number of new routes coming to fruition, new airlines commence operations and work begin on a host of long overdue terminal improvements.
“LJLA is the fastest, easiest, friendliest airport in the region and we hope that in 2016 our customers will continue to support their local airport in order for us to generate new growth to the benefit of our region.”
During 2015 13 new routes were announced of which nine were to new destinations.
Highlights include the start of Flybe’s three new routes – a five times daily service to Belfast City, a daily service to Edinburgh and a three times daily service to Amsterdam.
2015 also saw the start of Aer Lingus’ new service to Dublin with onward connections to North America and the time saving benefit of pre clearance of US Immigration and customs at Dublin Airport.
Other positives included the return of tour operator Thomson Holidays to Liverpool. Flights to Majorca will begin in May, while established operators easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air and Flybe all saw passenger number increases during 2015.
