Passengers from Liverpool John Lennon Airport will be served by global connections for the first time in a decade after the inaugural Lufthansa flight took off.
The German airline will operate four weekly services from Liverpool to Frankfurt, where passengers can then connect to hundreds of destinations across the globe. The inaugural arrival from Frankfurt was marked with an event at the airport on Wednesday (May 4) morning, which saw the Lufthansa plane 'baptised' by engines from Merseyside Fire and Rescue service.
Flights from Liverpool to Frankfurt will take one hour and 40 minutes. After arriving in Germany's finance capital, passengers will be able to connect to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas from the same terminal.
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John Irving, CEO of Liverpool John Lennon Airport, spoke to the ECHO at the unveiling and emphasised the importance of the airport being able to offer one-change flights to worldwide destinations. He said: " It’s a big day for us at the airport because it’s the start of something that we haven’t had for 10 years - passengers able to connect from Liverpool across Frankfurt and to the rest of the world, as well as people coming back in from all over the world."
The airport had been talking to Lufthansa for four years before an agreement was made, but Mr Irving said that Liverpool's draw as a tourist destination was the main appeal for the airline, which he described as "a huge global brand". He explained: "Lufthansa wanted to know what the demand is and what the catchment area is, as much as they want to see how nice the airport is and how we look after people, they’re more interested in what the region is and what it can provide.
"We’ve concentrated on the visitor economy in the city region, which is a huge draw for them and we know that the inbound route, which sometimes isn’t as strong for airlines, will be very strong here in Liverpool because people want to come to this city - they want to come to the football, to see culture, to see museums and to enjoy the lifestyle here - so it has been a hugely important piece for Lufthansa to see and to really live it - and they have certainly lived it since December."
Mr Irving's view was shared by Heinrich Lange, senior director sales for Northern Europe at Lufthansa, who told the ECHO : “ Liverpool, for me, has the perfect mix of being a city that’s interesting for incoming visitors as a city of sport and culture, but also as a business city.”
He continued: " I definitely see that sport is one of the things for which Liverpool is known globally. Let’s not forget about The Beatles, they are loved around the world as well. There are a lot of very strong icons that carry the name of Liverpool across the world and that’s obviously something that we hope will help us serve the market.
Watch our Facebook Live of the plane 'baptism' by clicking here.
“We’re the only classic network carrier at Liverpool Airport now, so the value that we bring is the convenience of connectivity in our hub. With a short hop to Frankfurt you have access to around 300 destinations worldwide that we’re serving.
Attracting large airlines like Lufthansa and providing connectivity beyond Europe is the long term goal for John Lennon Airport. Icelandic airline PLAY will offer connections to the USA via Reykjavik when it commences services from Liverpool in November.
Mr Irving said: "We’ve always had great connections for short-haul leisure and we’ll continue to do that and bring more and more of that in. But we have been missing more of that connecting traffic for a long time now."
He continued: "It has been a really tough few years in the industry, but we are starting to see more consistent travel patterns and April was not back to normal, but 75% of normal.
"Our plan for this year is to start to recover and be consistent and see people coming in. Having a brand like Lufthansa join us is not only a great symbol but it’s a great statement for this airport and the city region to have their badge sitting firmly alongside our other partners."
