There is a lot on the agenda for Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) in 2023.
The Speke-based airport made progress to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic in 2022, serving approximately 80% of the capacity it welcomed in 2019. In the financial year to March 2023, JLA expects around four million passengers to have passed through its terminal and increasing that figure to five million remains the primary aim.
In December, the airport's CEO John Irving told the ECHO he expects to hit that landmark in 2024, at which point his team can begin to think about surpassing it. For 2023, he hopes JLA will be looking at around 4.5 million passengers served, which will represent continued progress.
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As the airport works towards that target, passengers can expect plenty of change. Plenty of new routes have been announced in recent months, an easyJet expansion will create new jobs in Liverpool and while the idea of attracting new airlines is firmly on JLA's radar.
Here, we take a look at all the changes we can expect from Liverpool Airport over the next 12 months.
New routes
In 2022, Liverpool Airport welcomed Lufthansa and PLAY as new partner airlines. The German airline offers international connections from JLA, via a stop in Frankfurt, while PLAY flies from Liverpool to Reykjavik, before passengers can connect onto the USA.
Summer 2023 will see Lufthansa double its number of flights from Liverpool to six per week and will be the first summer that PLAY's flights will be available from JLA. Liverpool's long-standing airlines will also offer more routes this coming summer, while Norwegian airline Widerøe will return to the airport in March.
As a result, the following routes which were not on offer for Summer 2022, will be available this summer:
- Bergen (Widerøe)
- Reykjavik (PLAY)
- Corfu (easyJet)
- Shannon (Ryanair)
- Ibiza (Ryanair)
- Madrid (Ryanair)
- Copenhagen (Ryanair)
- Malta (Ryanair)
- Szczecin (Ryanair)
New jobs
This summer will see easyJet add a seventh plane to its base at JLA, as it offers a new route to Corfu. The 156-seat Airbus A319 aircraft will be based in Liverpool throughout the summer season. It joins two other 156-seat Airbus A319s, and four 186-seat A320s in use at Liverpool.
The new plane and easyJet's increase in operations will create around 40 job opportunities.
When it the addition of the aircraft was announced in December, Paul Winfield, director of aviation development for Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: “We’re delighted that easyJet will be offering passengers from the North West and North Wales even more opportunities to fly from the region’s airport of choice, with more seats now on sale from Liverpool for next summer as we continue our recovery from the pandemic. Our reputation of delivering a faster, easier, friendlier customer experience is seeing more and more passengers asking to fly from Liverpool.”
New airlines?
After welcoming PLAY and Lufthansa to Liverpool in 2022 - and seeing the latter increase the frequency of its routes - the airport would be keen to attract more new airlines in 2023.
Last month, CEO John Irving said: "Hopefully we’ll be able to find some other partners to come in and take advantage of what we do here - the customer service, the approach of faster, easier, friendlier. Coming out of the pandemic, I think that’s what people are looking for. Airlines are no different, they want to operate in an airport which is efficient.
"We’ll be building connectivity back up and building routes up. But we’re always out there looking for new options and new products that people from the region want."
Sustainability plans
JLA will release its decarbonisation programme in 2023, as it works towards its ground operations becoming carbon net-zero. At the centre of that programme is the construction of a solar farm on the approach into Hale, which it plans to use as a green source for 25% of its energy.
Last January, the airport applied to build the solar farm over more than 13 acres of land. The plans included over 5,000 solar panels, which JLA said would be an "integral piece in creating a sustainable airport and moving towards decarbonisation by 2040".
However, Halton Council rejected the plans in July, saying the airport did not provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the site formed part of its operational land. JLA will appeal this decision and will consider the solar farm as part of its decarbonisation programme, which it plans to release at some point in January or February.
Mr Irving told the ECHO in December: "As an airport, for net zero, we’ll need a solar farm and we certainly want to put one on our land. So we will, in the next few weeks, be appealing that planning decision.
"This is a net zero, green project. It’s on operational land - our confidence in our appeal is high because of what we’re trying to do, not just because it’s a net-zero project.
"We were confident in our application because it’s our land, it’s operational, it’s a solar farm. The appeal goes national rather than locally and we hope and we expect it to go through.
"To have a net zero plan for an airport is absolutely vital, but it can only really happen with the backing of a solar farm and other green technology that we’ll need to invest in over the next ten years.
"We’ll be launching the carbon plan irrespective of where the appeal is up to, because we want to set our statement out, we want to talk to people about what we want to do. The solar farm is integral but there are so many other parts of it.
"Our decarbonisation plan would 100% consider a solar farm in it. It’s not just a PR plan, it’s a science-based approach of how we get there. It needs to be heard, it needs to be listened to - and in some cases challenged - so we’re launching that with as many people around it as possible. The solar farm is obviously integral to that plan."
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