Liverpool John Lennon Airport

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{| class="infobox bordered" style="width: 220px; font-size: 95%;" |- ! colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Liverpool John Lennon Airport |- |align="center" colspan="4"|

|- !colspan="4" style="text-align: center; background-color: #4682B4; color: white;" |Runways |- !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Direction !bgcolor="lightgrey" colspan="2"|Length !bgcolor="lightgrey" rowspan="2"|Surface |- !bgcolor="lightgrey"|ft !bgcolor="lightgrey"|m |- !align="left" valign="top"|09/27 |valign="top" align="right"|7,500 |valign="top" align="right"|2,286 |valign="top"|Paved

Liverpool John Lennon Airport is one of Europe's fastest growing airports, having more than quintupled its annual passenger numbers from 875,000 in 1998 to over 4.4 million in 2005.

The airport is located 7 miles south east of the centre of Liverpool, United Kingdom, adjacent to the Mersey Estuary.

History

Liverpool John Lennon Airport is one of the UK's oldest operational airports. Speke Airport - its original name (pronounced Speak) - started scheduled flights in 1930, however was 'officially' opened in the summer of 1933. In the thirties, as air traffic from Liverpool was beginning to 'take-off' with high demand for Irish Sea crossings, a passenger terminal and aircraft storage facilities were built. During World War II, the airport was taken over by the Royal Air Force and known as RAF Speke

Speke was witness to what is thought to be the fastest air to air combat "kill" in the Battle of Britain and possibly of all time. Squadron Leader Denys Gillam took off in his Hawker Hurricane from Speke to be confronted by a Junkers 88 passing across him. As his undercarriage was still retracting he shot the Junkers down. The moment has been caught in a painting by Robert Taylor called "Fastest Victory".

In 1966, a new runway was opened on a new site to the south of the existing airfield. It enabled the airport to be open for business around the clock and is in use to this day. Control of the airport transferred to Merseyside County Council from Liverpool Corporation in the mid 1970s and 10 years later to the five Merseyside councils following the abolition of Merseyside County Council. A new modern passenger terminal, adjacent to the runway on the southern airfield site, opened in 1986, following the closure of the original 1930s building.Liverpool John Lennon Airport (2004). [Liverpool John Lennon Airport History]. Retrieved November 15, 2005.

In 1990 ownership of the airport was privatised, with British Aerospace taking a 76% shareholding in the new company. Subsequently the airport has become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings Ltd. In 2000, work on a £42.5 million modern passenger terminal began, tripling the size and increasing capacity, and this development was completed in 2002.ibid.

The terminal building at John Lennon Airport Liverpool

2002 saw the airport being renamed in honour of the late John Lennon, a founding member of Liverpudlian band The Beatles, twenty-two years after Lennon's death. A 7ft bronze statue of the local icon proudly stands overlooking the check-in hall. On the roof is painted the airport's motto, a line from Lennon's song "Imagine": "Above us, only sky".

The original terminal building from the 1930s, famously seen on early television footage with its terraces packed with Beatles fans, was left derelict for over a decade after being replaced in 1986. However it has recently been renovated and expanded to become the Marriott Liverpool South Hotel, preserving its Grade II listed art deco style.Marriott International Inc. (1996-2005). [Liverpool Marriott Hotel South]. Retrieved November 15, 2005.

Airlines

The airport handles both chartered and scheduled flights. It is currently served by the following airlines:

• Aer Arann (Galway)
• Aer Lingus (Dublin)
• easyJet (Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel - Mulhouse, Belfast Intl, Berlin Schoenefeld, Cologne/Bonn, Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Krakow, Mahon, Madrid, Malaga, Nice, Palma (Majorca), Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• Euromanx (Isle of Man)
• Flybe (Belfast City, Jersey, Southampton)
• Flyglobespan (Prague [Starts November], Newark [Starts 25 May, 2007], Tenerife [Starts November])
• MyTravel Airways Charter Flights (Alicante, Arrecife, Dalaman, Faro, Las Palmas, Palma (Majorca), Mahon, Malaga, Monastir, Reina Sofia, Reus)
• Ryanair (Barcelona (Girona), Bergerac, Carcassonne, Cork, Dublin, Granada, Inverness, Kerry, Limoges, Milan (Orio al Serio), Murcia (Alicante), Nimes, Oslo (Torp), Pisa (Florence), Porto, Reus (Barcelona), Riga, Rome (Ciampino), Shannon, Venice (Treviso), Verona (Brescia)
• VLM Airlines (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Jersey, London City, Luxembourg, Rotterdam)
• Wizz Air (Gdansk, Katowice, Kaunas, Warsaw Etiuda Terminal)

• TNT Airways

Getting There

By road, the airport is made accessible by the M53, M56,M57 and M62 motorways. The Knowsley Expressway links Knowsley, Prescot and Huyton to Speke Boulevard for fast access.

The airport does not have its own railway station. The nearest station is at Liverpool South Parkway, from which there are regular bus shuttle services to the airport and direct rail links from Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.

There are regular bus services linking the airport with both Liverpool and Manchester city centres.

Travel from Liverpool

There is a taxi rank outside the terminal which uses London-style black cabs. Alternatives are bus services or use the Internet to hire a chauffeur-driven car for long-distance travel.

References