A new airline is to join the list of carriers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, offering a new route from summer 2025 as Jet2 also announces an increase in capacity. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) will offer a new route to Turkey from summer 2025 after signing up another airline.
SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, will start operating from LJLA on April 6, 2025, when a new route to Antalya will take off. There will be three return flights a week with fares starting from £69.99.
It is one of two new good pieces of news for LJLA. On Thursday morning Jet2 said it was expanding capacity on existing routes for summer 2025 at multiple UK airports, including Liverpool, following high passenger demand.
In total, more than 35,000 additional seats have gone on sale to Malaga, Costa de Almeria, Majorca, Dalaman, Lesvos, Skiathos, Split and Dubrovnik.
SunExpress is currently operating 136 flights per week from nine airports in the UK in summer 2024. They are Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, London Gatwick, London Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, and London Stansted.
SunExpress offers a range of ticket fare options with the basic SunEco option including at least 20 kg of checked baggage on international flights.
For small additional payments, passengers can upgrade to SunClassic and SunPremium fares with added benefits such as increased baggage allowance, pre-flight seat selection, inclusive onboard meal and the ability to amend bookings without extra charge.
Tobias Bracht, head of sales for SunExpress, said: “We are thrilled to announce the launch of our exciting new route from Liverpool to Antalya in 2025.
“We are dedicated to offering exceptional value and convenience to our passengers with direct flights and look forward to connecting further airports in the UK with Türkiye.”
This latest announcement comes just weeks after Jet2 and Jet2 holidays began flying from Liverpool for the first time and Ryanair announced its further expansion at LJLA in a £80m investment.
Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said: “As well as booking their place in the sunshine for Summer 24, we are seeing lots of demand from customers who are looking even further ahead to 2025.
“As ever, we have responded to that demand by adding more flights and holidays so that customers and independent travel agents have fantastic choice when it comes to booking their favourites.”
Paul Winfield, aviation director at LJLA, added: “We are delighted to welcome this new scheduled service with SunExpress, the latest carrier to announce operations from Liverpool.
“Antalya remains a popular destination from Liverpool and a route with significant scope to grow when comparing capacity to other UK airports.”
SunExpress is a value carrier with a strong presence on the Turkish Riviera and in Anatolia. It is operating a total of 200 routes to 68 destinations across 35 countries in 2024.