On Thursday morning the first ever Jet2 flight will take off from Liverpool John Lennon Airport in an investment that will help push the airport’s annual passenger numbers back above 5m. Tony McDonough reports

At 8am on Thursday morning the first Jet2 aircraft will take off from Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) headed for Tenerife.

This flight, which LBN understands is fully booked, marks the start of a new era for the airport. The arrival of Jet2 and Jet2holidays for the 2024 summer season will likely help LJLA break through the 5m-a-year passenger barrier for the first time in several years.

In May 2023 it was revealed that Jet2.com and Jet2holidays would be flying from LJLA for the first time ever with 20 European routes for the summer season. Later in the year it revealed it would also offer a winter 2024 schedule of eight destinations.

Starting this week Jet2 will operate up to 54 weekly flights, including 12 weekly flights to both the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands. The second flight on Thursday will take off at 10am heading for Lanzarote.

A fleet of four based aircraft will fly customers to a wide choice of destinations across Mainland Spain, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Portugal, Madeira and Cyprus.

In December Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy said that from the moment the Liverpool schedule was announced last year there was “strong demand” for flights for the 2024 summer season.

In a trading update in February, the Leeds-based business said: “Forward bookings for our new Liverpool John Lennon Airport base where flying operations commence on March 28 have been pleasing.”

Mr Heavy added: “We are pleased with how the 2024 financial year is ending and are encouraged by early bookings for summer 2024.

“While recognising that there are many demands on consumer discretionary incomes, we believe that our customers cherish their time away from our rainy island and want to be properly looked after throughout their holiday experience.

“As a customer-focused and much trusted holiday provider, we remain confident they will continue to travel with us to the sun spots of the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and to European Leisure Cities.”

In February LBN reported that in 2023 LJLA had seen passenger numbers surge 20% above 4m for the first time since the pandemic with the airport on track to hit 5m passengers this year.

And figures released by the airport reveal a strong start to the year. It handled 272,608 passengers on 3,156 flights in January – a 14% rise on January 2023. Top destinations were Belfast, Dublin, Geneva and Alicante.

Signs of recovery in post-pandemic passenger numbers emerged in the airport’s financial results for the 12 months to March 31, 2023. Revealed by LBN in October, they showed the airport handled 3.8m passengers in its fiscal year, compared to 1.6m the year before.