LIVERPOOL RETURNS TO DERRY

© LJLA

easyJet, Liverpool John Lennon Airports biggest operator has announced the launch of a brand-new route.

Flights to and from the City of Derry in Northern Ireland will return to the North West’s faster, easier, friendlier airport in November 2024.

The route is a brand-new destination to the easyJet network and is the latest in a string of announcements made this month, after the airline and holiday-package operator launched 5 new routes from LJLA for this winter, only two weeks ago.

This isn’t the first-time that a route to Derry has been operated from LJLA though, it was initially operated by Ryanair until 2021 and then taken over by Loganair until January 2024 – when the Scottish airline announced it was dropping the route.

City of Derry Airport lies on the west bank of the River Foyle and is home to Ireland’s only completely intact and historic Walled City. It also boasts a vibrant food scene, award-winning museums, is home to the TV show Derry Girls and its where the Wild Atlantic Way meets the Causeway Coastal Route – plenty for explorers, foodies to do.

Commenting on the launch Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, said:

‘’We are delighted to be announcing a new route from Liverpool to City of Derry Airport, a brand new destination for easyJet, which will appeal to leisure and business customers alike.

‘’This new and exciting destination in our network provides our customers from across the North West with even greater choice and connectivity this year all with great value fares and friendly service, and we look forward to welcoming them onboard.’’

Paul Winfield, Aviation Director for LJLA said:

‘’We are delighted to announce another new easyJet route, this time to City of Derry, providing us with another popular link to Northern Ireland.

‘’With more than one million passengers flying between Liverpool to Derry over the past few years, we are confident that easyJet will be a successful partner on the route and look forward to reconnecting both cities.”

The first flight is due to take-off on Monday 4th November and will operate on Monday’s and Friday’s each week.

Brenda Morgan MBE, Head of Business Development at City of Derry Airport said:

‘’Services to Liverpool have been in demand from both corporate and leisure travellers in the North West.

‘’The flight schedule for Monday’s and Friday’s provides fantastic timings for business travel and during the week and weekend breaks for the leisure market.’’

Departure times, prices as well as other information can be found by booking directly on the easyJet website here or via their mobile app.

easyJet now have up to 32 destinations on sale across Europe from the Speke-based airport and currently base 7 planes at the airport.

LIVERPOOL AIRPORT RECRUITMENT DAY

© Liverpool John Lennon Airport

LIVERPOOL John Lennon Airport (LJLA) is to host a Recruitment Day to help fill hundreds of vacancies on offer.

The Speke-based airport is gearing up towards the arrival of Jet2 in late March, and is seeking people to fill over 190 vacancies at the airport.

This summer, the airport is expecting its busiest season in over 5 years, with an extra 500,000 passengers travelling through it to one of the 20 destinations that Jet2/Jet2 Holidays are launching.

The aim of the recruitment day is to ensure the airport is sufficiently staffed throughout its busiest period, as well as maintaining the great passenger service it has to offer – which has helped the airport being named the UK’s Best Airport 2023 in a Which? Best survey.

The annual recruitment event, which the airport organises on behalf of several employers each year, will take place on Thursday 11th January 2024 from 10am-4pm in the main terminal building.

Many of the 192 jobs on offer are mainly full-time, with some part-time jobs on offer too. The event will provide people with the opportunity to speak to representatives from each company with no appointment required.

Many of the jobs on offer include; aircraft dispatch, airlines sales desk, aviation security officers, passenger assistance for people with disabilities, catering and related front of house roles, bar work and retail work.

These roles will be on offer from a number of employers including; Jet2.com, aviation security company Wilson James, catering company SSP, passenger assistance company ABM and retailers such as Boots and duty free shop operator Dufry.

Carol Dutton, Liverpool John Lennon Airport’s HR & Community Director commented, “With a busy summer season ahead and employers here at the airport wanting to ensure our passengers continue to have the best possible airport experience, it’s important to once again make sure that the many vacancies on offer here at the airport are filled in time for the Summer.

We’ll therefore be delighted to welcome along prospective employees who may be considering a career at the airport, to our latest Recruitment Day next Thursday where they will be able to find out about a host of positions currently available across a diverse range of employers, with many hopefully going on to start work here in the coming weeks.”

Anyone wanting to attend the event, can travel to the airport directly using a number of public bus services or can travel by train to nearby Liverpool South Parkway. Alternatively, complimentary parking will be made available for those wanting to travel by car.

If you wish to attend the event, you can visit the airports dedicated Recruitment Day page on the airport website: https://www.liverpoolairport.com/recruitment-day

A decade on…

As many of you may not know, next week (14 January) will see, ‘ITV News at Ten’ celebrate ten years since it was reinstated to the ITV schedule.

A little bit of history…

‘ITV News at Ten’ began as a 12-week experiment on 3 July 1967, presented then by Andrew Gardner and Sir Alastair Burnet. ITV schedulers at the time, wanted to trial the UK’s first half-hour news programme, but many ITV regional bosses weren’t in favour of it.

 

Original ‘News at Ten’ logo.

Newscasters, Andrew Gardner, Alastair Burnet

However, after its first week on air, the ITV executives were still not convinced the viewing public were interested in 30 minutes of hard-hitting news five nights per week, and immediately wanted the bulletin axed. But, Newscasters Gardner and Burnet fought back and asked for more time. By the summer of 1969, the programme was a huge success regularly attracting over 12 million viewers per night. In the words of Editor Nigel Ryan, ”we knew we were safe”.

‘News at Ten’ is credited with creating the ‘reporter package’ – placing the reporter in front of the camera, and having them standing on location reporting to the viewers back at home what was happening? And why?

The iconic programme also made stars out of its newscasters. Sir Alastair Burnet, Anna Ford, Julia Somerville, Alastair Stewart, and (probably the most famous of them all), Sir Trevor McDonald – all became household names and trusted – the viewers listened to every word they said.

Sir Trevor McDonald on the set of ‘News at Ten’.

‘News at Ten’ had become part of British culture, but in 1998, ITV announced it was to axe the bulletin to make way for ‘higher rated’ programmes, and because of the rise of online news and 24-hour news channels. This led to an outcry, with MPs even debating the issue in parliament, with Gerald Kaufman MP saying ITV were moving the popular bulletin purely ”for money”. ITV were given permission by the ITC (now Ofcom), to move the bulletin. It last aired on 5 March 1999.

In October 2007, then ITV Chairman, Michael Grade announced plans to reinstate ‘News at Ten’ to the TV schedules in January 2008. Grade, called the axing of the bulletin in 1999 a ”shocking mistake”, and the decision had ”damaged ITV more than anything else”.

The programme returned to ITV on 14 January 2008 with Sir Trevor McDonald lured out of retirement to present alongside Julie Etchingham (Mark Austin took over from Sir Trevor in October 2008). It had its own unique branding and studio, and the iconic ‘bongs’ and ‘And finally’, also made a return.

 

‘News at Ten’ logo 2008-2009.

Mark Austin, Julie Etchingham, Sir Trevor McDonald.

Over the years, the bulletin has changed; Trevor McDonald retired (again), it lost its independent identity and was realigned to match the current ITV News output, and ITV channel controllers even moved the bulletin to 22:30 for six weeks in early 2017, in order to trial the ‘Nightly Show’ (which failed miserably).

The current update to ‘News at Ten’ was launched in January 2016. Tom Bradby, took over presenting duties and the programme has taken on a less ‘formal’ approach, allowing for more discussion on important issues, more examination of the details and to expand the audiences knowledge. The studio also incorporated images of ‘Big Ben’ striking 10pm, and the theme tune incorporated elements of the original from 1967.

 

‘News at Ten’ logo.

‘News at Ten’ revamped studio.

Despite all the changes, ‘News at Ten’ has remained an important part of history and celebrated fifty years since its first bulletin aired in July 1967. The way in which people read or watch the news has changed so much since 1967, but the programme still manages to reach millions per week, and (fingers crossed) will continue to do so, for many more years to come.

Here’s to another fifty years!

A World Unites

After the disgusting, and horrific attacks in Paris on Friday night, which left 132 dead, and many injured, the world united as one.

Over the weekend, many of the world’s most famous landmarks – From St Georges Hall in Liverpool, to Wembley Stadium in London, to New York’s Empire State Building, they were all lit up in the colours of the french flag – blue, white and red, to show their support for the people of France.

St Georges Hall, Liverpool lit up in french colours to show solidarity.

Many cities across the world stood silent and held vigils to remember all those who died, and to pray for the many who were injured, and that the attackers would be caught… and fast. And a book of condolence was opened in cities across the world.

On Friday night, the Eiffel Tower was placed into darkness in mourning of the victims, but today (Monday 16 November), the tower was once again lit, this time in the colours of the french flag, in tribute to all those who lost their life.

The Eiffel Tower is lit in the colours of the French flag.

France is a country on edge (understandably so), but we have to remember, this wasn’t just an attack on the people of Paris, it was an attack on our way of life. ISIS must be stopped, and our way of life protected.

Terrorism will never win.

A horrifying night…

As many of us we’re out drinking, having fun with friends, watching TV, or simply getting ready for bed, a horrifying moment in history was unfolding in Paris.

Late on Friday night (13th November), the people of Paris were being attacked by an unknown group of people, intent on killing as many of them as possible.

As the night unfolded, news agencies were reporting that a group of men had stormed a restaurant, concert hall, and shopping mall – shooting people, one by one.

Earlier that evening, the French national football team were playing Germany in an international friendly at the Stade de France, when an explosion was heard outside the stadium – this (as we’ve come to realise now), was the start of the unlawful, and horrifying attacks on this city.

After that shuddering explosion, and reports of hostages being taken in a restaurant and concert hall, French President Francois Hollande, placed France on lockdown – closing its borders with neighboring countries, and flights in/out were cancelled.

Waking up on Saturday, the true realisation of what happened in Paris on Friday night came to fruition. 132 people sadly lost their lives in the attacks, 352 have been injured (99 of them critically) through a series of shootings and explosions.

Flowers placed outside Le Carillon, Paris via Sky News.

Terrorist group IS have claimed responsibility for the attacks, releasing a statement saying France and other countries will ”remain targets”, if they continue air strikes against the terror group.

Francois Hollande has called the attack an ”act of war’, and has announced three days of national mourning for the country.

Across the weekend we’ve seen countless images of some of the worlds most famous landmarks being lit up in french colours – from the Empire State Building in New York, to the Sydney Opera House in Australia, and St Georges Hall in Liverpool.

St Georges Hall, Liverpool lit up in french colours to show solidarity.

These attacks are absolutely sickening, and have been carried out by a group of people hellbent on causing heartache, destruction and war – wherever they can. In this terrible situation, it can be quick for people to judge a whole religion based on whats happened, but we have to remember it’s a small percentage of extremists who carried out this shocking event, not an entire religion. Instead of tearing ourselves apart at this terrible time, all religions should be coming together in solidarity, to send a message to IS – you may hurt us, but you’ll never defeat us.

#PrayForParis

The end of an era…

Earlier tonight, viewers across the UK saw a true news broadcasting legend, end his near 30-year association, with ITV News at Ten.

ITV Newscaster Alastair Stewart, has been a part of News at Ten since he most famously anchored the programme LIVE, during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Since then, he has covered some of the world’s biggest news stories, including the Gulf War, a number of Budget specials (since 1992), and ITV’s General Election coverage (up until 2010).

Back in June 2015, it was announced that ITV/ITN bosses would be changing the award winning presenting line-up on ITV News. The biggest change announced, was that Political Editor Tom Bradby would become the sole anchor of ITV News at Ten, replacing Mark Austin and Julie Etchingham. Mark would move to the ITV News at 18:30 to present alongside Mary Nightingale, replacing Alastair Stewart as the main anchor. Julie would present News at Ten on a Friday, and Alastair would move to the ITV News at 1.30, presenting three times per week.

The announcement came as huge shock, especially as Mark Austin had just won the award for ‘Newscaster of the Year’, in February 2015. As news of the change sank in, it became increasingly clear Alastair’s association with News at Ten was coming to an end, and sadly tonight (Friday 09/10/2015), it did.

So, why did bosses decide to change the presenting line-up? According to ITV News editor Geoff Hill: ”it signals the start of an exciting new chapter for ITV News”, and with increasing competition from BBC News at Ten, as well as online news organisations, bosses felt they needed to revamp the programme, in order for it to stay ‘fresh’, and compete with other news providers.

Mark Austin presented his final News at Ten on Thursday 08/10/2015, after 8 years as main anchor of the programme, and even though Alastair was the main relief newscaster, it’s his association with the programme, that will be sorely missed.

Mark Austin presented his final News at Ten on 8/10/15. Credit: ITN.

ITV News and Alastair in particular, have been a true inspiration to me over the years. His professionalism, authority, knowledge and passion for news, is one of the main reasons I began my career in journalism. If I come even an inch close to the career he has had, I would be an extremely happy man.

As I expected, his final NAT close was ‘low key’, but as Alastair has said previously: ”it’s the news that’s the star. We’re simply lucky enough to be asked to write it, and read it.”

Personally, it has been a true honour for me to watch him present the worlds most iconic news programme, for over a decade. He will be truly missed by me (and a few others too), and I wish him luck with his ‘new’ role on ITV News at 1.30.

Alastair Stewart closes his final NAT, presenting alongisde Natasha Kaplinsky.

About my blog.

Hello, and welcome to my blog.

My aim is to provide honest, open and supportive opinion-led articles.

To give you a little background about myself, I graduated from University with BA (Hons) in Journalism with Media Studies in 2015. I have always had a huge personal passion for current affairs, politics, travel and local issues.

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