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When compared to the same three months last year, Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) experienced a 5.6% slump in passenger numbers during the first quarter of 2011. However, the fall, attributed to lower flight capacity over the winter months, has not dampened the spirits of airport chiefs in the northwest; in fact, Robin Tudor, a spokesman for JLA, expects 2011 to be the most profitable year since 2008.

Mr. Tudor told the Liverpool Daily Post that the airport is anticipating an overall passenger boost of 3% for 2011, “which, in the current difficult economic climate, would be good news”. The projected increase, which will create an annual total of 5.25m people, will fall just short of the record set in 2007, when 5.47m passed through the airport’s doors. The following year, 2008, saw Liverpool’s fortunes turn sour, as the recession bit into travellers’ wallets.

JLA’s summer schedule for 2011 includes new easyJet routes to Brussels in Belgium, Tallinn in Estonia, and to Gibraltar on the Iberian Peninsula. The airline’s rival, Ryanair, has also added flights from JLA to Toulon in France, and to the islands of Kos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. EasyJet now operates 32 flights from JLA, compared to Ryanair’s 49. Mr. Tudor noted that several “existing routes” from Merseyside would enjoy increased capacity throughout the warmer months.

With eight months of 2011 remaining on the calendar, JLA’s future is yet to be written. However, Mr. Tudor’s optimism can do little to change the fact that JLA may not be able to return to pre-recession passenger levels until the end of 2012, at the earliest.

From April 2011, Ryanair will begin flying from Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) to the islands of Kos and Rhodes in the Aegean Sea. The new routes are part of a ‘Greek invasion’ by the Irish carrier, which will see flights to southwestern Europe added at 13 airports served by Ryanair.

Kos, which is situated a few miles from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey, will be served twice a week from April 13. The island has two personalities, according to Thomson. Kos is an idyllic ‘sun and sun’ destination, much like neighbouring Rhodes, but the bright lights on the coast belie a rural heartland: “think deserted hamlets and whitewashed villages dotted across wooded hills”, explains the airline’s destination guide.

Flights from JLA to Rhodes will begin on April 14. The island, alongside Patmos, Arkoi, and Kos, is a member of the Dodecanese, an umbrella term for the 12 largest islands in the southeastern Aegean. Rhodes is the former home of one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Colossus, which straddled the entrance to Mandraki Harbour until the giant was felled by an earthquake in 226BC.

Tickets for the two routes begin at £37.99 for a one-way journey with all taxes included. Planes bound for Kos will depart every Wednesday and Sunday, while Rhodes will be served on Mondays and Thursdays. The additions will help cement Ryanair’s position as the largest carrier by passenger numbers at JLA, and strike a blow to rival airline, easyJet, which is currently the only airline to offer routes to Rhodes from Liverpool.

Ryanair will travel to 40 destinations from JLA this summer. However, the frequency of Ryanair flights from Liverpool to Girona Airport in Spain will be reduced from the end of February 2011. The airline has cut or cancelled flights from Girona to 35 destinations, after the local government in Spain reneged on plans to allow Ryanair to expand at the Costa Brava hub.

Officials at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) are trying to discover how tens of travellers missed their flights over the New Year period. Budget airline easyJet, says that around 40 people had to wait two hours to get through security after “huge queues” developed at checkpoints.

Whilst JLA bosses have absolved themselves of responsibility, the airport’s spokesman, Robin Tudor, said that an investigation would be launched into the chaos. Tudor noted that traveller tailbacks had begun at check-in desks and snowballed as large numbers of people were funnelled through security at the same time.

However, the immediate cause of the queues is unknown, as all machines and computers were functioning as normal, and the airport had the usual number of staff members reporting for duty. Strangely, resident airlines such as easyJet and KLM experienced no problems save for the absence of a few passengers.

“We had to hold some flights but we could not hold them forever, so we missed some passengers,” an easyJet spokeswoman told the Liverpool Daily Post. “There were a lot of very annoyed people.”

The airline said that travellers who had found themselves marooned between check-in and security were put onto the next available plane out of JLA.

Despite the mystery surrounding the incident, officials seem to want to place the blame with handling agents, who are contracted to perform services at the airport but are not employed by JLA. Whatever the cause, security officials at the northwest hub were lumbered with twice the expected number of passengers, enough to fluster even the burliest of border guards.

Despite having the third largest urban area in the country, the city of Liverpool has an airport that is routinely placed only eleventh or twelfth in lists of the UK’s most popular hubs, pipped to the post by airports in smaller cities, such as Bristol and Luton.

However, bosses at Liverpool John Lennon (JLA) are hoping that the hub’s performance in 2010 is enough to shunt the airport up the league tables.

RDC Aviation, a supplier of “business intelligence” to the aviation industry, indicates that JLA achieved the second highest rise in passenger traffic in the UK during the three quarters to October.

First place, Belfast City, attracted an extra 221,000 people in the first nine months of 2010, compared to 208,000 at Liverpool. The rise is particularly significant, given that only 12 of 50 British airports have achieved growth this year.

Year-end figures are unlikely to be made public until the beginning of 2011, but an educated guess would place JLA’s total traffic for 2010 in the region of 5.1 - 5.3m.

Passenger numbers reached “record levels” in October, according to the Liverpool Daily Post, but the northwest hub is unlikely to match the success of 2007, when JLA recorded annual traffic figures in excess of 5.47m.

Craig Richmond, CEO at Peel Airports, indicated that new routes from easyJet and Ryanair were responsible for the increase in travellers, but warned against complacency in the face of the coming winter. “In terms of passenger numbers, yes, this was a good summer, but the winter period will undoubtedly be difficult for all in the aviation industry.”

Liverpool’s links to Belfast are some of the most popular domestic routes in the UK, with flights to Malaga and Alicante in Spain, and Dublin in Ireland, also performing well. Peel Airports say that JLA has “great potential” to become an important regional airport.

Michael O’Leary’s airline, Ryanair, is once again the largest carrier at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA), after reclaiming the title from Luton-based airline, easyJet. The blue and yellow carrier has reported consistent growth at JLA throughout the year, even despite the harmful effects of the Volcanic Ash Crisis.

EasyJet and Ryanair are almost as synonymous with UK aviation as aeroplanes, runways, and noise-blight compensation schemes. The two airlines gained fame (and indeed, infamy) in very different ways. EasyJet featured on the docu-soap, Airline, whilst Ryanair has a shameless leader in Michael O’Leary, well known for his foul-mouthed tirades.

As the pair competes against each other at many UK airports, the two airlines quickly became bitter rivals, and their frequent, melodramatic squabbles make for interesting (and sometimes hilarious) reading.

News that Ryanair has trumped easyJet at JLA will no doubt make O’Leary’s Christmas lights shine a little brighter this December. However, the fortunes of both airlines were very different at the beginning of 2010, with easyJet achieving growth of 14.1% at JLA in quarter one, compared to 9.1% at Ryanair.

The Volcanic Ash Crisis proved to be a blessing in disguise for Ryanair in quarter two, as its orange opponent lost a depressing 12.9% of its passengers. Ryanair, on the other hand, remained stoic, reporting growth of 4%. O’Leary’s airline went on to transport a record-breaking 267,413 travellers in August, the highest ever recorded at JLA.

August’s figures topped off a productive third quarter for Ryanair, and a miserable one for easyJet. The former helped an extra 20.4% of passengers reach their destinations between July and September, whilst the latter stumbled to a 4.5% decline in traffic at JLA during the same period. In total, Ryanair has sold 2,084,625 tickets for its flights out of Liverpool in 2010, compared to sales of 1,954,839 at easyJet.

Robin Tudor, spokesman for JLA, said that Ryanair has “performed well,” but there are “challenging months ahead” for everybody involved with Liverpool Airport. “We continue to remain optimistic,” Robin said.

Budget airline, easyJet, has rubbished claims that an expansion by the carrier at Manchester Airport will affect the number of routes available from its base at Liverpool John Lennon (JLA) Airport.

The orange and white carrier is due to begin running flights from Manchester to Hamburg, Germany, on November 26, less than a month after it added a new route to Amsterdam from the Ringway hub, and to Gothenburg, Sweden, on December 10 2010. From Liverpool, easyJet will fly to three new destinations from February 7 2011, Salzburg in Austria, the capital of Estonia, Tallinn, and Brussels, Belgium.

Everything seems equal on the surface, but it appears that Carolyn McCall, easyJet’s new chief executive, wants to pursue ‘’further’’ expansion at Manchester in 2011, beyond adding extra routes over the winter season. What this expansion entails exactly has not been made explicit, but one could speculate that Ms McCall wants easyJet’s presence at Manchester to rival that at Gatwick and London Luton, two of the airline’s larger hubs.

The announcement was made as part of a company review conducted by the CEO, following on from easyJet’s 2009/2010 financial report, in which the airline made a pre-tax profit of £154m, including all costs incurred from the eruption of Eyjafjallajokull earlier this year. EasyJet referred to growth over the past 12 months as “flat.”

Whether easyJet’s pledge to support its Liverpool operation was an afterthought or a carefully devised plan may never be known, but JLA’s concerns struck a chord with the airline; easyJet has since unveiled a new route from Liverpool Airport to the UK’s last bastion on the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar.

EasyJet currently offers 32 routes from the northwest, including Faro in Portugal and the Channel Island of Jersey. “We have a very strong, committed community of passengers who will always fly from Liverpool,” Carolyn McCall said. “Manchester’s growth won’t be at Liverpool’s expense.”

Budget carrier, easyJet has added an eclectic trio of destinations to its winter schedules at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The airline, which is famed for its orange and white aeroplanes, as well as its long-standing rivalry with Ryanair, will begin flying from the northwest to Brussels in Belgium, Salzburg in Austria, and the Estonian capital, Tallinn, from 2011.

EasyJet now has 32 routes available from Liverpool, including popular holiday destinations, Berlin in Germany, and Alicante in Spain.

Commercial Manager at easyJet, Ali Gayward, claims that the airline’s latest additions will attract the “full range of passengers,” from business executives and winter sports fans, to “holidaymakers seeking exciting new destinations.”

Flights to Tallinn, located in the north of Estonia, will begin on April 26 2011. The route will operate three times a week from Liverpool, priced at £27.99, one way. Tallinn is a curious amalgam of both new and old structures, with buildings from the Roman and Russian Empires (such as the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral) standing in the shadow of skyscrapers. The city is easyJet’s most northerly destination from Liverpool, and has the second highest latitude of all easyJet routes to Europe, after Helsinki, Finland.

Brussels, a city that needs no introduction, will be accessible from Liverpool from February 7 2011. Tickets, which went on sale on October 7, cost in the region of £23.99. The route will operate six times a week, despite being something of an experiment for the budget carrier: the flight is the first time that easyJet has offered a connection between the Belgian city and a UK airport.

Completing the trio, flights to Salzburg in Austria, a very popular location during the winter months, will begin on December 17 2010. The destination is one of three ski routes being sold by easyJet from Liverpool this winter, after Grenoble and Lyon in France. Liverpool-Salzburg will operate once a week, costing £25.99 for a one-way journey.

The French city Grenoble, also known as the ‘Capital of the Alps’, is the latest addition to easyJet’s list of flights out of Liverpool John Lennon. The route is the airline's 29th from the airport, making it the largest carrier on the premises in terms of the number of passengers handled.

The new route, which begins on January 8 2011, is likely to become a key product during the winter ski season as Grenoble is situated in one of the most popular skiing areas in France, close to the resorts of Chamonix, Brides-les-Bains and Les Deux Alps.

easyJet will also put on flights from Liverpool to Lyon in France from December 18 2010, and supplement its existing Liverpool-Belfast International route with up to five extra flights per week from December 3.

The airline’s commercial manager, Ali Gayward, claims that the additional flight to Belfast International will help travellers who have had their travel plans thwarted by Ryanair’s sudden exodus from nearby Belfast City Airport.

Commenting on the new route to Grenoble, Liverpool’s manager of corporate affairs, Robin Tudor, referred to the French city as a “great destination” which “compliments easyJet’s range of winter sun and ski flights” from Liverpool.

Grenoble has an ancient and illustrious history stretching back over 2,000 years. The city was the site of the X Winter Olympic Games in 1968, highlighting its links to snow sports, and has an impressive fortress within its midst – La Bastille, built in the 16th century to repel invaders travelling through the Chartreuse Mountains.

Today, Grenoble is a centre for science and education, as well as a haven for skiers and snowboarders.

Budget carrier, Ryanair, has unveiled a new route from Liverpool John Lennon to Moss Airport in Rygge, Norway. The flight, which will operate twice a week from the 5 November, is designed to work in tandem with an existing route from Liverpool to Sandefjord Airport, better known as Oslo Torp.

Despite flagging profits in the wake of the ash crisis, and extensive cutbacks to its winter flights, Ryanair continues to add routes at select airports, including Leeds-Bradford, Edinburgh, and now, Liverpool. The airline offers 45 destinations from John Lennon Airport, including routes to Bremen, Germany, and Carcassonne in France.

Liverpool’s PR chief, Robin Tudor, claims that Liverpool is growing in popularity with Nordic football fans – ‘Norway is a popular destination with English holidaymakers, especially for winter breaks, but just as important are the numbers of Norwegians travelling over to see their favourite Premier League team.’

Moss Airport is located 5km from the village of Rygge, which is in turn located 67km from the Norwegian capital, Oslo. The airport’s alternative name, Oslo-Rygge, is therefore, somewhat misleading. Rygge is located on the banks of the Oslofjord, which offers both boating and sightseeing opportunities.

Tickets for the Liverpool-Rygge route begin at £23.99 for a one-way trip, excluding Ryanair’s array of taxes and baggage fees. The trip departs Liverpool on Fridays and Sundays, but travellers may have trouble booking a return flight until the 1 September, when the route officially begins. As matters stand at the moment it seems that only one way tickets from Liverpool can be bought.

Ryanair’s website offers more information about flights to Moss Airport, if you can stand the kitschy colour scheme.

As daring tales of smuggling go, the recent case of two women trying to smuggle a dead body onto a plane must rank as one of the more bizarre instances.

Gitta Jarant and Anke Anuisc, both Germans living in Greater Manchester, have been released on bail until June 1st following the discovery on Saturday that Mrs Jarant’s husband, whom they were trying to check in to travel on an Easyjet flight to Berlin from Liverpool John Lennon airport, had in fact been dead for some 24 hours.

The 91-year-old was in a wheelchair, wrapped in a blanket and wearing sunglasses. When initially challenged, the women insisted that he was merely asleep and indeed they had convinced the taxi driver who had transported the party from Manchester to Liverpool that this was the case. Two of Mr Jarant’s grandchildren who were with the women were asked to corroborate the claim about their grandfather. But airport staff were less than convinced and alerted security; the two women were later arrested for failing to notify a death.

The man, Kurt Willi Jarant, is not thought to have died under suspicious circumstances despite the bizarre events that followed his death; he had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and had recently been in hospital with pneumonia.

Even after he was pronounced dead, one of the women asked staff whether they could still all board the plane, doubtless a cheaper way of repatriating a body than paying the customary charges which can run into thousands of pounds.

Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM) has expanded its summer roster to include an extra daily flight from John Lennon Airport to Schiphol, Amsterdam. The carrier, which is a subsidiary of Air France-KLM, hopes to improve connections between Liverpool and other cities.

Founded in 1919, KLM is the flag-carrying airline of the Netherlands, noted for its blue and white aeroplanes. The firm entered into a partnership with Air France in 2004, and now provides flights to over 200 destinations worldwide. KLM’s latest expansion at Liverpool boosts the capacity of the Amsterdam route by a third, up to four flights a day.

Liverpool has been host to three KLM routes since March 2009, all of which fly from Merseyside to the Dutch capital. Airport bosses are eager to attract businesses with global renown to the northwest, and believe that drawing more and larger airlines to Liverpool will help the region float its economy.

According to airline manager Henri Hourcade, the new flight is a testament to KLM’s commitment to the northwest: “Our new summer schedule is great news for Liverpool and for KLM, and is a tangible symbol of the strength of our operations out of Merseyside.” The extra flight will join the carrier’s roster in May.

Rival airline, Ryanair, has also announced a new route out of Liverpool Airport. From May 21, the carrier will begin offering flights to Szczecin, Poland. The trip, the second Ryanair offers to Szczecin from an airport outside London, costs £19.99 for a one-way flight.

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EasyJet Launches Isle of Man Route

Ryanair Expands Fleet at Liverpool

From the 21st May 2010, EasyJet will begin offering flights from John Lennon Airport to the Isle of Man, departing every day except Tuesday.

The airline has already noted strong demand for the route in the northeast, where rival firm, Flybe, has held a monopoly on all Isle of Man connections for almost two years, ever since the collapse of the island’s local airline, EuroManx, in May 2008.

EasyJet expects 70,000 people to use its Isle of Man service within the first year of operation, noting its potential for growth as the island becomes more popular with British tourists.

The airline has already reserved a new Airbus A319 aeroplane for the route, which is expected to cost around £23, each way. Not everybody is happy to see EasyJet on the Isle of Man, however.

Flybe chief, Mike Rutter, has already warned travellers away from the ‘new airline in town,’ fearing many broken hearts when EasyJet abandons the route in favour of somewhere exotic and shiny:

“Let’s not kid ourselves.” Mr. Rutter said, “EasyJet’s Isle of Man service has nothing to do with wanting to serve the island, but everything to do with their inability to find a use for their aircraft in Liverpool.”

EasyJet currently operates 27 routes out of Liverpool, including its new route to the Isle of Man.

In similar news, the long-running feud between Ryanair and EasyJet is expected to reach a crescendo in the coming weeks, when the owners of the two airlines, Michael O’Leary and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, take part in a specially chosen challenge: namely, a race around Trafalgar Square or a wrestling match.

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Ryanair Expand Fleet at Liverpool

Escape to the Sun, EasyJet Says

Economists fear that the recent spate of bad weather could have resounding effects for the city of Liverpool, after both fog and heavy snows brought John Lennon Airport to a standstill. On Tuesday morning alone, Ryanair cancelled 12 flights out of the northwest.

Liverpool’s problems began in the days leading up to Christmas, when a snowstorm affected two scheduled flights, and left hundreds of passengers stranded in the terminals. One traveller noted kids crying – “the mood was one of sheer exasperation.”

On the 29th December, a thick fog bank descended on the airport, reducing visibility to just a few hundred metres. Ten flights were cancelled. A further seven were redirected to East Midlands and Robin Hood, where the skies were clear and the runways fog-free.

Liverpool was not out of the woods yet, though. The 5th January brought more snow than the city could handle, and everything from ferry services to local factories, high street stores and bridges were suspended or closed.

Forty percent of Merseyside’s workforce stayed at home, bringing the city to a frosty halt. Experts predict that as much as £50m could have been sucked out of the economy by Tuesday’s closures.

The runway at Liverpool was shut down twice, while specialist teams got rid of the ice and snow. The only major airports that managed to escape the weather unscathed were East Midlands and Humberside, which are operating as normal.

Even the transfer of Liverpool F.C. player, Andrea Dossena, was foxed by the snowfall, as neither Manchester nor John Lennon airports could provide him with a flight out of the country.

Ryanair have this week announced it’ll be expanding its fleet of aircraft at Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport.

From March 2010, with two additional aircraft taking its tally to eight, it will be offering passengers a choice of three new links: Rimini on the east coast of Italy, Trapani on the west coast of Sicily, and Lodz in Poland. In addition, frequency of flights will be increased for four existing routes: Faro, Krakow, Proznan and Wroclaw.

The new Boeing 737-800 planes will see Ryanair serving a total of 44 destinations from JLA, with annual passenger numbers predicted to reach 2.5 million, overtaking Easyjet as the airport’s highest serving carrier. With the addition of Rimini and Trapani, holiday makers have plentiful options to see the vineyards and piazzas of Italy. According to Neil Pakey, Deputy CEO of JLA owners Peel Airports Group, JLA will now link to “more Italian destinations than almost all other UK regional airports.”

In the same month that Easyjet launched a new airbus serving two new routes, this is good news for the city, with Ryanair’s expansion alone expected to sustain 2,500 jobs in the area. Only three months after the North West lost several flights, with the airline pulling routes from Manchester Airport due to disagreements over landing charges, this will be a welcome development for the region.

A spokesman for Ryanair, Stephen McNamara, said “Ryanair routes at these airports deliver millions of passengers, and sustain thousands of jobs at each airport and in the surrounding regions every year."

During a volatile time for the aviation industry, which has seen many airlines making huge loses, the growth is part of a £210 million investment by the low-cost airline, which includes similar increases at UK airports in Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow. You’ll find a list of all new UK flights on the Ryanair website.

An attempt to demoralise stricken handling firm, Servisair, could see Liverpool John Lennon shut down, after Britain’s General Union (GMB) revealed that fire fighters and safety officers could be drafted into an indefinite strike.

Despite the loss of 150 of its staff members to the picket lines, Servisair has refused to surrender to GMB’s demands, believing contingency plans sufficient to handle airport traffic.

The firm has claimed that the coming bank holiday – one of the busiest days of the year for UK airports – will place no strain on airport operations; GMB has accused Servisair of employing “scab” labour from Dublin, an infraction that could cause difficulties for the airport as a whole.

Under the conditions of the strike, Servisair is not allowed to involve John Lennon officials in negotiations or damage limitation. The firm is also forbidden from hiring contractors to complete the work of absent Servisair employees.

If the firm has enlisted replacement staff members from other companies, GMB is entitled to hold the airport accountable. In other words, GMB will attempt to escalate industrial action until the airport shuts down or the issue is resolved. Peel Airports continues to deny reports that it borrowed staff from other airports.

Eddie Parker, a spokesperson for GMB, expressed a need for further strike action: “our members are unhappy with what Peel Airports have done in breaking the agreement and have therefore requested that we ballot on potential industrial action.” Fifty-five emergency fire fighters will vote on industrial action over the next three weeks.

Strikers want Servisair to guarantee jobs at John Lennon Airport. The firm recently asked 51 employees to re-apply for 27 positions.

Furious airport workers have organised an indefinite strike over fears that cost-cutting measures could force staff into redundancy. The strike, which involves over one hundred Servisair employees, is designed to disrupt Ryanair, FlyBe, and Dutch KLM flights at Liverpool John Lennon airport.

Despite assurances to the contrary, negotiations between Servisair and Britain’s General Union (GMB) collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, after the handling firm refused to acquiesce to GMB’s demands. Servisair has since declined to cooperate, leaving unhappy strikers out in the rain.

The union has lamented the turn of events: “GMB regret the inconvenience that the dispute will have on the travelling public.” Unfortunately, with no new talks scheduled, it may not be the last time that the union apologises to holidaymakers.

Bosses at John Lennon are adamant that airport operations will continue as normal. Replacement staff members, many of whom are already employed by Dublin and Stansted airports, were flown in over the weekend.

Passengers are being advised that many of the operators based at Liverpool Airport employ alternative handling companies, all of which remain unaffected by the strike. Budget airline, Ryanair, is relying on a ‘robust contingency’ to prevent inconvenience to its customers.

In similar news, Gatwick, Stansted, and Manchester airports are anticipating major disruption over the bank holiday weekend. Employees of Swissport, a Swiss handling firm, are demanding a 2.75% pay increase.

Following a weekend of awkward silences, Servisair and GMB have yet to agree on new terms. Officials at Liverpool Airport have asked travellers to arrive two hours before scheduled departure time.

Airline bosses have reacted angrily to the pre-Budget statement which was delivered by Chancellor Alistair Darling last week. With Air Passenger Duty (APD) set to rise, there are fears that some airlines may have to cut down on the number of flights operating out of Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

With the nation’s economy struggling, the spotlight was on the Chancellor as he announced a series of measures which he hopes will kick-start the economy. While the headlines were made by the VAT rate cut, Michael Cawley, the Chief Operating Officer of budget airline Ryanair has tried to draw attention to the rising taxes which are to be imposed on air passengers.

APD is set to rise by 10% in 2009 from £10 to £11 for short-haul flights with a further increase to £12 expected in 2010. In a statement released in the aftermath of the pre-Budget statement, Cawley said that he expected this rate to affect regional airports such as Liverpool to a greater extent than the country’s larger airports.

Cawley went on to argue that “passenger traffic has fallen since this tax was introduced and this increase will have a further damaging effect on passengers.” Airlines fear that rising prices will reduce consumer demand for flights which may in turn force a reduction in the number of flights provided from some airports.

With air travel often cited as a significant contributor to the production of carbon emissions, taxes such as APD are applauded by environmental organisations. In their statement, however, Ryanair slam the so called ‘environmental tax’, arguing that the revenue which is generated is not being used to address environmental issues.

In this time of economic hardship, Liverpool John Lennon Airport passengers may be one group which finds themselves disappointed by the UK Government’s new taxing plans.

The dedicated fast-track lane at Liverpool John Lennon airport may be good news for passengers who are willing to pay £2 each to get through security quickly, but airline crew are up in arms about it and their union has called for a rethink by the airport operators.

Prior to the introduction of the fast-track facility, crew members had a dedicated channel at security. This has now been withdrawn in order to free up capacity for fast trackers, and crew members now have to queue with them in order to clear security. Airlines have issued pilots and crew with priority passes, which means in theory that they can queue-jump.

This has not, however, endeared them to those who have coughed up for the privilege of speedy clearance, and pilots and stewards have been subjected to shouts from members of the public telling them to wait their turn.

BALPA (British Airline Pilots’ Association) have called the set-up “ridiculous” and pointed out that their members do not want to get into an argument with passengers before they even board the flight. On the other hand they can sympathise with passengers who have paid extra for a service which they do not feel is delivering.

Robin Tudor, spokesperson for the airport, has, however, defended the scheme and said that there have been no formal complaints made by passengers. Members of an aviation industry forum have meanwhile complained that at Gatwick North terminal security staff are moving passengers from the normal channels to the fast track since the queues there are shorter, much to the irritation of Business and First Class passengers.

The financial viability of UK airports could be at risk, thanks to proposals to make regional airports pay for their own policing. As things stand at the moment, only nine of the larger airports, such as London Heathrow, Manchester and Birmingham do this, but plans are afoot to include in excess of a further fifty, including Liverpool John Lennon.

A formal consultation on airport security has recently been launched and no decisions will be taken for a further three months. New legislation is, however, expected to be passed in the next session of Parliament. Ruth Kelly, Transport Secretary, has said that it is unfair for there not to be a “level playing field” and is adamant that, with the growth of regional airports, the time is right for taxpayers to stop having to subsidise profit making private enterprises. Currently shopping centres, railway stations, and football stadiums have to foot their own policing bills.

Under the proposed new legislation airports will have responsibility for drawing up their own plans for airport security. Edinburgh airport recently opened their own police unit at an annual cost of £2.5 million, whilst the annual bill for the relatively small City airport in London is some £7 million. Airports such as Liverpool will in all probability face multi million pound bills at a time when many would argue the aviation industry is facing a crisis.

The security risk to regional airports was brought home to the government and public alike last summer after the bomb attempt on Glasgow airport and somewhat alarmingly the funding for policing these potential targets is said to be woefully inadequate.

The soaring cost of fuel is having a devastating effect on the profitability of our airlines and, as anyone caught up in the demise of Silverjet will tell you, it’s not much fun finding yourself stranded thousands of miles from home when your carrier goes bust.

With this in mind, Neil Pakey, MD at Liverpool airport, has made a plea to the government not to “tax planes out of the sky”. Most of us accept that our hands are tied as far as the cost of fuel is concerned, but at a time when Airport Passenger Duty is being reviewed by the government, Mr Pakey’s pleas are particularly relevant.

APD, an excise duty which is currently charged per passenger flying out of the UK, could be replaced by a charge per plane and, in the light of the rise in fuel prices, there is fear that the economic impact of this could be disastrous. Mr Pakey points out that for every pound spent investing in air services, forty four pounds is reaped in economic benefits for the region.

Neil Pakey is not the only person speaking out against the possibility of duty being charged per plane from Nov 2009. BA warned its shareholders last month that this move could “distort competition” and “adversely impact” their profitability.

Controversy surrounded the doubling of APD in early 2007, although the Treasury attempted to appeal to our green consciences, by forecasting that this rise in duty would result in a reduction of harmful emissions. This was disputed at the time by experts in the aviation industry. However, the new way of charging duty, if introduced, is likely to encourage airlines and manufacturers to become more environmentally friendly since the tax will be based on emission levels.

Liverpool airport was awarded the runner-up prize for "Best Marketing Campaign 2005" in the OAG Airline of the Year Awards.
The rebranding campaign of the airport came in second to the Emirates' marketing campaign.
To keep up-to-date on Liverpool John Lennon Airport's new and events, visit the official news page.

Ryanair's success at Liverpool John Lennon Airport has resulted in a fifth Ryanair aeroplane being brought in to increase services.
The introduction of this new aircraft brings with it four new destinations: Oslo and Riga, to commence in September 2005; and Carcasonne and Bergerac, to commence in February 2006.