Low cost airline easyJet is to add another summer route from Liverpool John Lennon Airport in 2024. Tony McDonough reports
Summer sun-seekers are being offered another route from easyJet out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) from April 2024.
Flights to Enfidha in Tunisia will launch on April 1, 2024, with twice weekly departures on Mondays and Fridays. Seats are now available on easyJet.com and via the mobile app with one-way fares from £45.29.
This is the second new route to be announced by Liverpool Airport in the past couple of weeks. In late October it was revealed Guernsey airline Aurigny, will become the airport’s 10th airline when it starts a new service to Guernsey next summer.
It will offer departures to the channel island of Guernsey on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays starting on April 2, 2024. Aurigny will use its 72 seat ATR-72 aircraft on the route.
Speaking about the latest easyJet announcement, Paul Winfield, aviation director at LJLA said: “We are delighted to offer a new country market from Liverpool and a new route for easyJet from the North West with this new direct service to Tunisia.
“Passengers from across the North wishing to travel to Enfidha can do so from the faster, easier, friendlier airport in the region. The route adds to an impressive and growing list of leisure offerings from easyJet in Liverpool.”
Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK country manager, added, “We are delighted to be launching a new route and holidays from Liverpool to Tunisia’s beach town Enfidha and taking our network from strength to strength.”
In mid-October LBN revealed Liverpool Airport latest financial results. They showed a pre-tax profit of £4.54m for the 12 months to March 31, 2023. Revenues more than doubled to £35.66m
It is the first time LJLA has been in profit since COVID-19. During the pandemic the airport was hit badly by long periods of lockdown. In the two years of COVID it reported pre-tax losses of £12m and £4.87m.
In its latest accounts posted on Companies House, the airport, reveals passenger numbers for its fiscal year totalled 3.8m. This is against 1.6m the previous year and represents a 79% recovery from the COVID slump when the fell to just over 500,000.
In March this year the airport refinanced its debts, agreeing a five-year £42m facility with NatWest and Lloyds Bank. This agreement allowed it to immediately repay an outstanding debt of £30m to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
In March 2022 LJLA agreed a deal with the Combined Authority to defer repayment for another 12 months. It had secured a £34m lifeline loan in the summer of 2020 at the height of the pandemic.