Liverpool John Lennon Airport this week begins what is set to be its busiest summer season since before the pandemic with bookings up 14% on last year. Tony McDonough reports
Summer 2023 bookings out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport are up 14% on 2022 and it is gearing up for its busiest peak season since before the pandemic.
Passengers have the choice of dozens of routes out of the airport to multiple destinations across Europe. Biggest airlines operating out of LJLA are Ryanair and easyJet. Wizz Air also offers several routes and Lufthansa operates a hub link via Frankfurt.
In February Ryanair announced four new routes out of Liverpool for this summer taking its total to 31. This represents an increase in capacity of 15% and 255 weekly flights. Ryanair is investing £80m at the airport, creating 30 new jobs.
And easyJet has upped its capacity by almost 20%. It is increasing frequencies to popular destinations including Alicante, Antalya, Belfast, Bodrum, Dalaman, Izmir, Heraklion, Jersey, Kos, Larnaca, Malaga, Nice and Tenerife.
Lufthansa is increasing its capacity by 75% following their announcement last year that they will be increasing frequency to six times per week in the peak of Summer 2023.
Norwegian carrier Widerøe is set to return in August after a three-year hiatus by reinstating its popular twice-weekly service to Bergen in Norway.
With the summer season getting under way this week LJLA will demonstrate that the dark days of the COVID pandemic are now behind it. Summer 2020 was a write-off for the aviation sector with most planes grounded. Summer 2021 wasn’t too much better.
LJLA has been commended for its customer service in recent years despite the challenges of the pandemic, coming top of the latest Which? UK airport survey. This week LBN reported it was launching a new VIP service for passengers.
Paul Winfield, LJLA’s director of aviation development, said: “We all knew that having been one of the first industries to be impacted by the pandemic, we would also be one of the last to fully recover afterwards.
“However this summer we expect to see passenger numbers edging closer to pre-pandemic levels with our airline partners adding more flights to existing popular destinations as well as a number of new services too.
“Before, during and after the pandemic we have continued to give travellers a great passenger experience, with more people from across the region now making Liverpool their airport of choice.