8% passenger growth sees 2015 become LJLA’s best year since 2012

Figures out today show that 2015 was Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s (LJLA) busiest year since 2012 as over 4.3 million passengers chose to use the Airport - an increase of 8% compared to 2014 and the first sustained period of growth since 2011.

The Airport enjoyed a busy Christmas and New Year period to round off what has been a strong 2015, with December passenger throughput almost 15% higher than the same period last year and the 11th consecutive month of growth with 310,000 passengers passing through the Airport.

2015 has been a significant year for the Airport, having seen the number of airlines choosing to operate from Liverpool more than double to 9 – the highest in the Airport’s recent history. 13 new routes were announced of which 9 are to new destinations.

Highlights include the start of Flybe’s three new routes from Liverpool - their five times daily service to Belfast City, their daily service to Edinburgh and their three times daily service to Amsterdam with onward connections across the world from Schiphol.

2015 also saw the start of Aer Lingus’ new service to Dublin with onward connections to North America and the time saving benefit of pre clearance of US Immigration and Customs at Dublin Airport. Onward flights are now available to New York - JFK, Newark - New Jersey, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Orlando, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Hartford, Connecticut and Toronto.

Other highlights include the news that Thomson Holidays will be returning to operate from Liverpool in 2016, with flights to Majorca starting this May, whilst established operators easyJet, Ryanair, Wizz Air and Flybe have also all seen rises in passenger numbers during 2015 with more people choosing to use their local airport.

2016 will see a number of new operators at Liverpool. Vueling commence their three times weekly flights to Barcelona at the end of March, Thomson Airways operate their weekly holiday flights to Palma in May and C. I. Travel Group will operate holiday flights to Guernsey every Saturday between early June and September. Czech Airlines will also be returning to operate twice weekly flights to Prague once again, also starting at the end of March.

Continued passenger growth, new airlines and new destinations, have also been complemented by the Airport Company investing in new and improved passenger facilities too. New toilet facilities opened shortly before Christmas, and new large flight information screens have also recently been installed in the departure lounge. A programme of works across the airport including replacement flooring, improved fast track parking and replacement seating, will continue in the coming months to further improve the overall customer experience.

Andrew Cornish, CEO of Liverpool John Lennon Airport commented, “Looking back 2015 has been an excellent year for the Airport. We have made significant progress, delivering on our objectives of increasing the number of airlines and choice of services available, with the business seeing a number of new routes coming to fruition, new airlines commence operations and work begin on a host of long overdue terminal improvements.

LJLA is the fastest, easiest, friendliest airport in the region and we hope that in 2016 our customers will continue to support their local airport in order for us to generate new growth to the benefit of our region.”