20% ‘Eggxtra’ Easter passengers forecast for LJLA

With the first Bank Holiday period of the year just a week away, this weekend sees the start of the great Easter holiday getaway, with Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) forecasting a 20% increase in passenger throughput over the holiday period, bringing JLA its busiest days of the year so far.

Almost 300,000 passengers are expected to pass through the Airport between today and the end of the Easter school holidays – with around 50,000 extra passengers taking the opportunity to fly between Liverpool and a host of destinations across Europe and beyond. This news comes on the back of four consecutive months of year on year growing passenger numbers due to additional airline routes, at a time when many other UK airports are still seeing passengers numbers fall.

However, Airport Management are keen to get the message across to anyone departing from the Airport in the coming days, to allow plenty of time to pass through the terminal, with queues likely at peak times.

With airlines incentivising passengers to carry more in their hand luggage and check-in less luggage, combined with more passengers checking in on-line, the Airport has noticed a considerable reduction in the time that passengers are arriving at the Airport, ahead of their departure. In addition, the heightened security measures remain in place, including the continued ban on volumes of liquids, which can dramatically impact on passenger processing times adding to the delays, resulting in passengers not allowing sufficient time to pass through the terminal.

The Airport is recommending passengers arrive at least 2 hours before departure and even longer for those with luggage to check-in, in order to avoid the possibility of missing flights.

The combination of Easter holidays and the start of airline summer schedules this weekend bringing additional services, means that on some days JLA is expecting a 60% increase in passenger volumes during the concentrated early morning peak departure period.

In response to the growing passenger throughput, JLA is currently investing over £12m in a program of expansion and improvements to passenger facilities, including a new security screening area which will be over three times the size of the existing security and queuing facility, incorporating the latest generation security equipment. This first phase of the scheme will become operational in early June, relieving the current temporary security difficulties.

Andy Gower, Airport Director commented, “The Airport has seen increased volumes of passengers coming through in recent months and we therefore expect this Easter to be our busiest period for some time. With this good news though comes the issue of potential delays at peak times for our passengers and whilst we have plans in place to tackle this, we are once again asking for passenger co-operation and that they help us to help them by allowing plenty of time to pass through the airport.

“This coming Monday (29th March) looks like being our busiest day and we are urging all travellers departing from Liverpool in the coming days to turn up at least two hours before their departure time and to think carefully what items are in their hand luggage and in particular to remember the liquid restrictions still in force.”