EASYJET LAUNCH 5 NEW LIVERPOOL ROUTES

© easyJet

Budget airline easyJet has announced the launch of five new year-round routes from Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA).

The launch of these new routes to sunshine and city break destinations allows for a greater mix and better choice for passengers, something the public and airport operators have been asking for.

The news comes less than two weeks since the airline announced a new year-round route to Malta starting in December.

On sale from today (11th June), the new destinations on offer are; Berlin, Fuerteventura, Malta, Marrakesh, and Prague.

Two of the routes on offer will add a ray of winter sunshine to those seeking to get away from our rainy shores during the colder months. Malta, famed for its beautiful beaches with crystal clear seas is situated right in the heart of the Mediterranean. Whilst Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands provides visitors with over 150 km of white, sandy beaches and magnificent coastline to explore and is perfect for water sport enthusiasts.

To those wanting an exciting city break or simply for those travelling for business, Berlin and Prague will offer excitement, vibrant streets and relaxation. While Marrakech offers something unique and is sure to be popular with those seeking a culturally rich experience.

The new routes form part of the companies Winter 24/25 schedule from LJLA launching in October. The route schedule for the 5 new routes are as follows:

• Prague (x3 weekly – Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays) from 28^th October 2024.
• Marrakech (x2 weekly – Wednesdays & Sundays) from 13^th November 2024.
• Malta (x2 weekly – Tuesdays & Saturdays) from 10^th December 2024.
• Berlin (x2 weekly – Mondays & Fridays) from 14^th February 2025.
• Fuerteventura (x1 weekly – Wednesdays) from 19^th February 2025.

Dates, times and prices as well as other information can be found by booking directly with easyJet online here or via their mobile app. Prices start from as little as £26.99 with the airline also offering package deals as part of easyJet Holidays here.

The launch of these new routes were announced earlier with the airline offering their biggest winter schedule ever with 60 destinations launched across their entire route network.

easyJet will now have up to 31 destinations on offer across Europe and beyond from the Speke-based airport. easyJet fly 2 million passengers per year using 7-based aircraft at LJLA.

Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager, said:

‘’We are delighted to be adding five new routes from Liverpool John Lennon Airport this winter which will offer something for everyone from exotic winter sun to short city hops, we are providing more choice for customers from across the region who choose us for our unrivalled network, fantastic service and great value fares.

Paul Winfield, Aviation Director for LJLA commented:

‘’We are delighted to welcome 5 new routes this Winter with our largest airline partner, easyJet. Berlin, Prague and Marrakesh become new year-round routes from Liverpool, offering passengers from across the North West and North Wales the opportunity to explore these destinations with the added benefit of flying direct from Liverpool. We are also delighted to welcome routes to Malta and Fuerteventura with easyJet, where there is clear demand for more services from Liverpool.’’

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

Liverpool Airport: Balance or just excuses?

A NEW in-depth report highlighting the economic impact of Liverpool Aiport has been written by Tony McDonough for Liverpool Business News, here:

Special report: Huge cost of halting airport growth

The report highlights how huge the economic cost to the Liverpool City Region would be if the expansion of Liverpool Airport wasn’t given the green light.

At the moment, LJLA contributes an estimated £340 million to the city region each year and supports over 5,000 jobs. But, under the expansion plans this is estimated to increase to over £600 million per year and job creation would rise to over 12,000.

The report goes on to say that the regions economy pre-pandemic was worth £5 billion per year with overseas visitors increasing over the past 10 years. But, with the city’s poor transport links to the airport, foreign investors are stopping short of investing.

So, when Lufthansa announced in December 2021 that it would be launching a new route to its central hub in Frankfurt from LJLA in May 2022 (https://www.liverpoolairport.com/news/2021/12/lufthansa-connects-liverpool-globally) it brought much needed hope – especially at a time when the travel industry was being savaged by the COVID-19 pandemic. The launch of this new route is seen as boost in confidence for not just the airport, but the city region itself and could open up new ‘runways’ of investment in the future.

As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog post, there is big opposition to the plans for LJLA to expand, so are the reasons given an object of balance? Or are they just excuses?

Firstly, business leaders in the region are calling for ‘open dialogue’, and say the “anti-airport sentiment”, by leaders and decision makers “should be avoided”, and is sending out a “negative message”.

Chief Executive of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, Paul Cherpeau, says: “We should be working collaboratively with our airport, using it as a tool of our economic recovery and rebuild whilst ensuring it minimises its iversll environmental impact.”

Also in the report by LBN Daily, a blunt statement released by Chairman of Downtown in Business, Frank McKenna says: “The commercial naivety of this resolution beggars belief.

“Do councillors not appreciate the cash, the jobs, the significant benefits the airport, directly and indirectly, brings to the city region economy? Did they not question the impact that this will have on the Freeport initiative?”

The opposition seems to be coming from Liverpool City Council leaders itself and they’re using the ‘net zero carbon targets’, as the excuse as to opposition to the airports expansion.

Whilst acknowledging the airport “supports a huge amount of investment and jobs in our city and it’s success is vital to our economic heath”, Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson is using the excuse of the council having “declared a climate emergency”, and the regions “commitments to a net zero carbon city and country”, as the reason for opposition. Also, the mayor added that “much had changed”, since the airport first released its masterplan. However, the mayor did add: “Clearly a balance needs to be achieved where economic growth is sustainable for the planet and any airport development in this country would need to be both financially and environmentally sound.”

Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram also acknowledged the “strategic importance” of LJLA to the region in “terms of international connectivity and as a vital local employer with good, unionised jobs”.

But, in similar fashion to Mayor Joanne Anderson, Mr Rotherham also mentioned: “we must strike a balance between continuing to attract inward investment to our city region and our ambitious net zero targets”.

For me, personally, all I’m hearing is the same excuse being peddled out as to why LJLA shouldn’t expand. Not one person in charge, or who has significant ‘pull’, are coming up with alternative plans for both sides of the argument to work together. It seems we’re going down the ‘normal’ route of debate when we already know how the council are going to vote in future anyway. It seems to be time wasting exercise. But, those who want this expansion (myself included), won’t give up.

I believe that our carbon footprint needs to be reduced, but this can’t be for the sake of progress and better paid jobs for the local economy. Cities such as Manchester and now Leeds are seeing investment by the bucket load, but Liverpool seems to always be stuck in a debate about heritage or net zero and it’s stifling economic growth.

Airlines such as Ryanair are moving routes out of Liverpool and moving them to Manchester and Leeds Bradford Airport is seeing investment and route connections return. This can’t continue and something needs to be done.

LJLA needs this expansion sooner rather than later and we cannot afford to have another situation of debate, delay, debate, delay. We’ve got a plan. Now, we need action. And, the council and its leaders need to back business and allow the airport to be expanded.

The excuses need to stop.

Liverpool Airport: Flight on, flight off?

Liverpool John Lennon Airport. ©Liam Fitzsimmons

THE FIGHT to save Liverpool Airport is beginning… and, Liverpool City Council have a lot to answer for.

Council members, from across different political parties, are coming together to oppose the airports proposed expansion due to the ‘environmental impact’ on the area and Councillor Lena Simic, who chairs the climate change and environment select committee, is leading the opposition.

Councillor Simic told the meeting: “Let’s be clear, nobody wants airport expansion.” Liverpool should “lead the way” when it comes to tackling climate change. The world is a very different place from when the council and airport published their original plans, she added.

The council are now threatening to withdraw council funding from the airport all together. But, it’s unclear what is meant by the funding the council gives to the airport.

The council currently own just 10% of the airport, whilst Peel Group own 45% and Ancala Partners own the other 45%.

According to an article published by Place North West, the airport currently contributes £250 million per year to the Liverpool economy, but if the £100 million expansion got the go ahead, this could potentially rise to £625 million per year.

In both 2018 and 2019, the airport saw more than 5 million passengers travel through it, but in 2021 that figure plummeted to just over 1 million passengers* – partially due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The travel industry, as a whole, is still recovering and it will take time. But, over recent weeks airlines like Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizz Air have all CUT routes from the airport and moved those operations to both Manchester Airport & London Gatwick. If this trend continues, and the council continue to bash the airport at every turn soon there won’t be an airport to discuss.

A big light on the horizon is that the airport has successfully negotiated with Lufthansa to launch services to Frankfurt from May 2022. With passengers using that service allowed to check-in for their final destination in Liverpool and use the Frankfurt hub to fly to hundreds of locations across the globe.

But, if Lufthansa can show confidence in the airport and what it could achieve for them, why can’t city council do the same? Why are they so set on allowing the airport to fail?

The council seem to be giving excuse, after excuse, after excuse as to why they’re withdrawing the funding but, many local people want the expansion to go ahead due to the investment it would bring – in jobs, tourism and money to the local economy.

The expansion would bring more routes to the area, including a London route from British Airways, but the airline currently won’t launch one as it believes the airport needs more investment… and it does!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge supporter of the airport and I want to see it expand and be more successful than it already is. In recent years, it has unveiled great improvements passenger facilities, but it needs to do more.

Executives at the airport have put together a plan of action to expand the airport which includes; expanding the runway, extending and improving the airport terminal buildings and build a solar farm capable of 2.5 KWH’s of electricity per year. You can find out more information about the masterplan here: https://www.liverpoolairport.com/about-ljla/liverpool-john-lennon-airport-master-plan-to-2050

Liverpool Airport Masterplan. Credit: Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

However, Green Party councillor Anna Key, says this goes against the councils aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2030. But, can we really allow our airport to fail for the sake of the councils carbon neutral target? No, we can’t!

Understandably, there will be some sort of impact to the environment, but the airport is putting plans in place to combat that and we can’t stop investment and jobs that people desperately need for the sake of the environment – especially when another airport down the M62 is seeing constant investment and new routes announced each day.

Liverpool City Council really needs to start doing what is right for it’s people and stop using the excuses of environment and heritage to stop the city from moving forward and being stuck in the past. The city is being left behind on numerous fronts and we can’t allow the council to keep doing it.

I, for one, support the expansion of Liverpool John Lennon Airport and I urge others to do the same.

SUPPORT THE LIVERPOOL AIRPORT EXPANSION!

*Credit to Place North West.