Ryanair Celebrate 15 millionth LJLA passenger with 2 new routes

Liverpool John Lennon Airport had a double celebration with Ryanair today, firstly welcoming the airline’s 15 millionth passenger to fly with them through LJLA since they first commenced operations from the Airport in 1988 and then announcing two new destinations to be added to their network.

From 13th April 2011, Ryanair will operate twice weekly flights to the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes. Seats on these new Greek routes go on sale tomorrow (Friday 4th February) with fares starting from £37.99 one way inclusive.

Both destinations are part of the Dodecanese group of islands located in the Aegean Sea. Rhodes is the largest in this group of islands and historically, famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Kos meanwhile was reportedly visited by Hercules in Roman mythology and today both are popular summer holiday destinations.

Much has changed at the Airport since Ryanair first commenced operations from Liverpool with just one route in 1988 – their ever popular Dublin service. Today Ryanair carry as many passengers through Liverpool in 2 months as the Airport handled in total in 1988. Back then, less than 400,000 passengers used the Airport with just a handful of services available. In 2010, JLA handled over 5 million passengers and this Summer Ryanair will operate flights to 40 destinations from Liverpool.

Celebrating today’s milestone, Robin Tudor, Head of PR for Airport owners Peel Airports commented, "Both the Airport and Ryanair have come a long way since the first Ryanair passengers travelled from here. To have seen over 15 million Ryanair passengers pass through the Airport is a tremendous achievement.

Over the years Ryanair have continued to bring the region’s passengers a growing choice of popular destinations from their local airport and their double celebration today sees this continue with the addition of these two great new Greek destinations to their Liverpool network."

Ryanair’s Maria Macken added, "Ryanair is delighted to mark a double celebration at Liverpool John Lennon Airport with the announcement of two new Greek routes to Kos and Rhodes as well as welcoming our 15 millionth passenger at the Airport.

Ryanair will include 2 new Greek routes in Liverpool Airport’s summer schedule giving passengers in the Northwest a choice of 40 destinations this summer with Ryanair.

To celebrate the launch of our summer 2011 schedule at Liverpool, we are releasing one million £6 seats for travel in late February and early March on over 500 Ryanair routes throughout Europe which are available for booking until midnight Monday (7th Feb) at ryanair.com