Blue Air have today officially launched their latest European base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) with a morning of celebrations, including a short familiarisation flight for over a hundred guests in attendance.
Liverpool is now Blue Air’s eighth European base and one of the airline’s 189 seat Boeing 737-800 aircraft was flown to Liverpool this morning to be based here for Summer 2017 to operate the airline’s four new routes to Rome, Milan, Hamburg and Alicante.
As part of their plans to become Liverpool’s airline, last October Blue Air launched a competition for the public to design a new livery for this aircraft, with the winning design seen in Liverpool for the first time today.
The unique livery recognises the City’s strong musical links, its warm welcome and famous city skyline, with both halves of the City’s football support catered for through the use of both blue and red colours.
The basing of a Blue Air aircraft at Liverpool will be creating up to 35 new, direct, local jobs, with a number of new airline employees on hand to meet guests during today’s celebrations.
Next week, Blue Air’s Liverpool base will introduce daily departures to Rome Fiumicino, four times weekly services to Milan Bergamo and Hamburg, as well as a three times weekly service to Alicante.
These new services will complement Blue Air’s existing flights from Liverpool to three destinations in Romania and are expected to be popular with both departing passengers from across the region and arriving international visitors too. Earlier this month, Blue Air announced what will become their eighth route to operate from Liverpool, with twice weekly flights to Larnaca in Cyprus commencing in June too.
In addition to the airline’s unique Liverpool aircraft livery, Blue Air have further committed to the City Region by announcing today that they will be working with Liverpool John Lennon Airport and its #LJLALoves charity brand, by asking passengers on all their Liverpool flights to make a donation to the Airport’s charity partner - Alder Hey Children’s Charity.
It is hoped that with the Airport and Blue Air’s help, thousands of pounds can be donated over the coming months, with funds raised going towards supporting Alder Hey’s latest initiative to create a world class ‘digital hospital’.
Blue Air first started operations from Liverpool in December 2014, with a three times weekly departure to Bucharest. Just 3 months later the airline added a twice weekly service to Bacau in March 2015 followed by a twice weekly service to Cluj-Napoca in June 2016.
Andrew Cornish CEO of Liverpool John Lennon Airport commented, “Today has been a tremendous occasion with guests from across the City Region helping to give a great welcome to the team from Blue Air in recognition of their latest commitment to Liverpool.
Blue Air is one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines and continue to go from strength to strength. This new base is a significant financial investment and from installing a unique Liverpool livery on their aircraft, to helping raise funds for an amazing local charity, Blue Air’s commitment to the City Region is clear for all to see.”
Gheorghe Racaru, CEO of Blue Air commented, “It is indeed a proud moment for us at Blue Air to further expand our European network with the addition of Liverpool as our 8th operational base. We are confident that our actions will make North West England more accessible, further boost tourism and foster economic development in the region.
Today’s achievement indicates our commitment to offer Liverpool City Region and their potential visitors, a seamless and convenient travel along with affordable fares. Our based 737-800 will connect Liverpool to the currently unserved Rome, Milan and Hamburg, while also offering an increased offer on the Alicante sector. We look forward to sustaining the local economy, and subsequently increasing our presence at the airport with even more routes in the coming future.”
Reservations for all Blue Air services from Liverpool are available via www.blueairweb.com, through the airline’s call center or its collaborating travel agents.
Photo caption:
(L to R) Blue Air’s Chief Operating Officer Tudor Constantinescu with LJLA’s CEO Andrew Cornish and Blue Air’s CEO Gheorghe Racaru, celebrating the launch of the airline’s latest base at Liverpool John Lennon Airport
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