Romanian low-cost carrier will be offering a daily departure to Rome Fiumicino, four times weekly to Milan Bergamo, four times weekly to Hamburg and a three times weekly service to Alicante. Tony McDonough reports.
Low-cost airline Blue Air is to offer four new routes out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) and will create 35 extra jobs.
The Romanian carrier is to make LJLA its eight European base and it will be locating 189 seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft here at the beginning of the summer 2017 season.
New destinations
Adding to its existing three Romanian destinations out of Liverpool, Blue Air will now also be offering a daily departure to Rome Fiumicino, four times weekly to Milan Bergamo, four times weekly to Hamburg and a three times weekly service to Alicante.
Starting next summer there will be 160,000 seats will be on sale for the new routes, starting in the summer season.
The airline will start recruiting and training employees for positions as pilots, cabin crew and engineers immediately.
‘Liverpool’s airline’
Blue Air is also considering a special Liverpool focus for the livery of the aircraft to be based at LJLA, as it looks to become Liverpool’s airline.
Blue Air’s chief executive, Gheorghe Racaru, said: “Today is a historic moment for both Blue Air and the Liverpool city region as we announce our eighth base at the airport, adding four routes.
“In fact, we are going to put three brand new destinations on Liverpool’s route map, by flying directly to the currently unserved cities of Rome, Milan and Hamburg.”
Rapid growth
Blue Air first started operations from Liverpool in December 2014, with a three times weekly departure to Bucharest.
Just thee months later the airline added a twice weekly service to Bacau in March 2015 followed by a twice weekly service to Cluj-Napoca in June 2016.
It has has now carried almost 120,000 passengers on flights to and from Liverpool in less than two years of operations
Andrew Cornish, chief of LJLA, said: “Blue Air are creating something special here.
“They very much want to be a part of the region’s renaissance by investing in an area where they see tremendous opportunities to successfully grow their business, at the same time as creating local employment and attracting inward investment.”