LJLA - Tables: Scheduled Airlines and Routes, 2000 onward
Oct 23, 2018 8:35:43 GMT 1
owensy likes this
Post by viscount on Oct 23, 2018 8:35:43 GMT 1
LJLA, AIRLINES AND ROUTES
ALL SCHEDULED PASSENGER SERVICES THAT HAVE OPERATED AT
LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT SINCE JANUARY 2000.
ALL SCHEDULED PASSENGER SERVICES THAT HAVE OPERATED AT
LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT SINCE JANUARY 2000.
Text: 'Viscount', Research, data tables: '8miles27'
From comments on the Ryanair and EasyJet threads it is clear that knowledge as to what routes from LJLA are currently flown, been flown and withdrawn, or yet to be tested is at best uncertain. To be honest, when I set out to compile this list, I had no idea that it would prove so lengthy. My very many thanks to forumite ‘8miles27’ for digging deeply into his annual records and helping me out in a very big way. Having got 200+ lines of data, the big task then was to consider how best to share this data: destination alphabetically by each airline; in order of commencement for each airline; by destination country across all airlines; selecting just the past 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, back to the current terminal 2002, turn of the Century, the arrival of low-cost at Liverpool 1997, as far back as the move to the South Airfield 1986, 1961 when the Council took over, or go the whole hog right back to 1945? Should the task be restricted to scheduled routes, or to also include Inclusive Tour charter destinations? Could aircraft types, frequencies or passenger numbers carried be included?
After much thought and some investigation into how easy information would be to gather and how clear the eventual tables would be, it was thought best to keep it simple, down to just route, airline, start and, where applicable withdrawn date, plus guidance as to seasonal or year-round operation. As the current low-cost style operation arrived at Liverpool with EasyJet in 1997, then those routes would need including, with complete route coverage from the start of 2000.
There is a huge amount of information here, never before brought together and shared in one place. No matter how carefully we have checked back, there could be omissions and over-simplification of data. Some routes have been repeated by an operator, for example Flybe has operated on the Belfast City service on three separate occasions. These are noted with an (R) for Returned to the route again later and (2) to show that this is the second time the route/operator combination has been recorded. There could be some routes that changed from all year round to winter or summer season only, or vv - I’ve only found one, Oslo/Rygge which was year round, then did not operate one summer season but returned the following winter season before being withdrawn. There are at least two routes which operated a short series of scheduled flights for Christmas before starting year round services in the early summer, there could be others overlooked. On occasions routes have changed airport eg Warsaw/ Chopin services operated into Warsaw/Modlin for winter 2015/16 due to airfield reconstruction. What I have been unable to list is the reason for route withdrawal, simply as in many cases it was never made clear at the time, other than when an airline ceased operation altogether.
Whichever way the list is considered, the sheer number of lines of information involved make it difficult to access aspects of the information. From a historical point of view, the sequence of introduction of each route by all the airlines is important, especially as this information is destined for the Nostalgia, Historical record section of NWAN (where it will be easier to locate in the future and not get ‘drowned’ by the rapid growth of threads in the Airport Developments Section). For access to information about an individual route then Airports alphabetically was considered, but eventually this looked confusing and rather long, so Airports by Country looked the neatest and most accessible way to the information about a particular destination. On the first table where several routes commenced operation in the same month they may not always be in exact date order of the inaugural service. The second table makes it straightforward to observe how some destinations have changed operators over the years eg Isle of Man, while others are served by upto three airlines eg Malaga, Palma and Alicante at the same time. It would be easy to present the information Airline by Airline too if the first tables present well as a forum post.
ROUTES SERVING LIVERPOOL AIRPORT: THE SITUATION IN 1999.
Those routes in operation on 1st January 2000 are included as a number of routes are still served today. So to set the scene in 1999 the principal airline at Liverpool was EasyJet, who during the year expanded from two to four based aircraft, serving: Amsterdam, Nice, Geneva, Barcelona, Belfast International, Malaga, Madrid and Luton by the year end. A fair expansion considering they only started flights serving Liverpool in October 1997. EasyJet’s arrival, along with an increase in I/T services, had helped take the annual passenger throughput at Liverpool Airport from 0.7m in 1997 to 1.9m in 2000.
At the start of 1999 the Isle of Man was served by both Emerald and Manx Airlines, however Emerald with their HS.748s withdrew from passenger schedules on 21st March, leaving Manx Airlines as sole operator for the rest of the year. Emerald Airways do feature in the tables as they returned to passenger scheduled services in 2004 with BAe.ATP aircraft.
British Regional with Jetstream 41 and BAe.ATP served Belfast City having taken over operation of the route from parent company Manx Airlines.
Ryanair served Dublin throughout 1999, having served the route since 1988. They had for a short time also served Waterford, May to October 1990, but as this is well outside the scope of 2000 onwards, it is irrelevant here. Ryanair’s move to serve mainland European destinations from Liverpool only commenced in 2002, with based aircraft from 2005 so are all within the ‘2000 onwards’ time-frame.
Unlike today, in 1999 the Inclusive Tour charter scene was lively with Direct Holidays, Airtours, Balkan Holidays, Libra Travel, CI Travel Service, Thomson and First choice all involved. This though is outside the current survey which is being restricted to scheduled services only.
Inclusive Tour charter operators and destinations from Liverpool is a field that is in desperate need of recording – if anyone has even partial research ‘Viscount’ would be delighted , as while he has annual records for many years since the late 70s, pulling it all together is a mammoth task. The historical record would be all the richer for annual information regarding I/Ts to be published and shared. Scheduled air routes 1961-2000 would benefit greatly too from being recorded as a single table in a similar format as the tables here. A lot of work, but there are some out there who have lists of such things that could be shared.
AN AFTERTHOUGHT on REFLECTION
If aviation enthusiasts from FoLA on a long slow Saturday afternoon gathered around tables in the Airport upstairs landside cafeteria towards the end of the year 2000 had dared to suggest that towards the end of 2018 Ryanair would be operating 450 Boeing 737-800s and EasyJet some 310 Airbus A.319-321s and that from Liverpool (through a terminal named after a Beatle!) 6 European airlines would be serving around 75 destinations during a year, carrying 5m pax pa, with the 4th and 5th largest airlines at Liverpool being Hungarian and Romanian operators – they would have surely have been accused of talking fanciful gibberish and as they were clearly losing their marbles, so had to buy the next round of coffees! The future is stranger than fiction (misquote).
CREDITS, COMMENTS and AMENDMENTS
Again my very many thanks for the immense assistance of ‘8miles27’ in searching through his records, without which this considerable undertaking would still be months away from being shared here! Tony William’s regular quarterly route, operator and day of operation/frequency list compiled for FoLA’s ’09/27’ have proved invaluable and are missed. So scroll through and be amazed at the variety of destinations served as direct flights from Liverpool Airport this Century.
Constructive amendments welcome as a PM or a post on the thread, but please discussion on where best new routes should be established to, or which routes should be resurrected and by whom are best kept to ‘Airport Developments’ and the appropriate Airline thread – where such comments have been always made.
When compiled in October 2018 the information is current to, and includes winter season 2018/2019. How best to keep the tables updated is a problem for the future!
