Ryanair is preparing for its biggest summer ever at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
The Irish budget airline will increase its offering to more than 255 weekly flights across 31 routes from the Speke-based airport this summer. Included in its offering are four new destinations Ibiza, Madrid, Rome and Shannon, while it will also expand capacity on its routes to Alicante, Cork, Dublin, Knock, Paris, Reus and Tenerife.
Earlier this year, Ryanair announced the expansions to its operation in the city this summer. As well as the new routes and increased number of flights, it will base a new plane at the airport, in a move which has created 30 jobs.
As it prepares for the summer season, the airline welcomed its 35 millionth passenger through Liverpool John Lennon Airport today (June 1). It comes as Ryanair celebrates 35 years of operation at Liverpool.
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Ryanair’s head of communications, Jade Kirwan said: “We are delighted to celebrate 35 years and 35 million Ryanair passengers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, with our 35 millionth passenger departing this morning on our popular Porto route – just one of the 31 routes we are operating as part of our biggest ever schedule this summer.
Ms Kirwan told the ECHO: "It's going to be our biggest summer in Liverpool to date. We'll be carrying more passengers - 25% more than summer 2022 - it's a phenomenal jump.
"We felt that there's obviously more capacity in place, we've got 15% more capacity than we would've done last summer. The four new routes - Ibiza, Madrid, Rome and Shannon - means we're offering a little bit more choice and increased frequencies on some of the popular routes.
"The routes that we know our Liverpool customers want to see, you've got Alicante, Paris, Reus & Tenerife and if people want something closer to home if anyone's popping over to Ireland, we've got Cork, Dublin and Knock where frequencies have gone up there as well.
"We're adding new destinations and we're building on the existing popular ones that we know work well and people want to see.
"On top of that, the exclusivity of some of the routes. I think it's important that if anyone travelling from Liverpool wants to go to Italy, Belgium, Croatia, Lithuania, Malta and the like, Ryanair is the main airline that they can go with. We operate all of those countries exclusively from that airport.
"I think the main thing is, while we have exclusive routes, the Spanish routes are proving the most popular already for summer 2023. When we look at booking trends, they're the ones that are selling out and booking up quickly. That's a testament to our low fares, because we do have other operators operating to those destinations or nearby, as well."
Robin Tudor, head of PR & communications at Liverpool John Lennon Airport said: “Ryanair were the first low-cost airline to operate from Liverpool and for 35 years they have been giving the region’s passengers the opportunity to travel to a host of popular overseas destinations from their local faster, easier, friendlier, airport of choice at some of the lowest air fares around. This continues today as we gear up for the busy summer holiday period and look forward to welcoming thousands of Ryanair passengers over the coming weeks."
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