Almost 70,000 passengers are expected to pass through the airport over the August Bank Holiday weekend with the poor UK weather pushing up bookings. Tony McDonough reports

Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) is expecting to handle almost 70,000 passengers over the August Bank Holiday weekend – its busiest weekend of the year.

Poor summer weather in the UK over the past couple of weeks has prompted many people to book trips to sunnier destinations. Expansion of routes out LJLA by airlines including easyJet, Ryanair and Wizzair means people have a choice of more destinations than ever.

Summer favourites include Palma De Mallorca, Alicante, Faro and Malaga, with weekend city breaks also expected to be popular with passengers travelling to a variety of European cities, such as Amsterdam and Barcelona.

However, it’s not all about flying off to Europe this weekend with flights to both the Isle of Man and Jersey likely to be amongst the top 10 most popular destinations too, despite the more unpredictable UK weather.

Robin Tudor, head of PR for the airport, said: “The poor UK summer weather this year means that we expect many of the region’s passengers will take advantage of the great choice of flights and the convenience of flying from Liverpool to a host of destinations a lot warmer than here in the UK, making the August Bank Holiday a very busy period for the airport once again.”