Annual Report on Visiting Aircraft Activity - 2017
Dec 20, 2018 14:36:46 GMT 1
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ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITY AND VISITING AIRCRAFT
AT LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT
- 2017
AT LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT
- 2017
FOREWORD
It has become a tradition, first started by Phil Butler in the mid 1960s to each January compose a Report in the MAS magazine ‘Flypast’ detailing how many aircraft of each type had visited during the year, registration nationalities, airlines using the airport and a list of resident aircraft. Various people have been involved over the years, including (at least) Tony Williams, Brian Jones, Bill Woosey, Adrian Thomson, Paul Ellison and Dave Graham. From 1979 the full list of visiting aircraft registrations was included and the ‘Annual Report’ feature was carried on without a break after the demise of the Merseyside Aviation Society by Air Britain (Merseyside Branch) then the North West Aviation News Group on paper until 2005 and subsequently on the web until 2013. With Dave Graham’s sudden departure from the scene in mid 2014, there has not been a Report since that of 2014 – the first break in continuity since the mid 60s.
While the report is likely of interest to only a minority, it does provide a interesting summary and fascinating ‘snapshot’ insight into aviation activity at the Airport for the year and have become a major resource for research. Certainly without the ‘Annual Report’ my blogs on the Nostalgia section examining all visits by certain types of aircraft, or the fleet lists for Liverpool aviation companies would have been near impossible to compile in such detail. In typing onto digital the 1960s (and yet to be posted 1950s and early 1970s) ‘Visiting Aircraft Logs’ creation of an annual report helps establish a background for the registration record. Unfortunately, while creating historic reports, I have rather ignored and let slip the current ones. Although still missing 2015 and 2106, this is a start towards filling-in the gap, with an attempt to cover 2017 to the same sort of standard as those of the earlier 2010s, and will provide a comparison with 2018’s Report once ready in late January.
Although Dave Graham removed all his posts on the Web overnight unilaterally in June 2014, his Annual (and monthly movement) Reports are thankfully still available to view on an ‘archive rescue’ site:
web.archive.org/web/20130810042501/http://nwan.co.uk/review.html (covering 2001-2012)
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/20286/nwan-2014-annual-review-activity (for 2014)
INTRODUCTION
Liverpool John Lennon Airport handled 4,901,157 passengers in 2017 (CAA figures), representing a small increase of +2.5 % compared to a figure of 4,778,924 passengers in 2016. The increase is certainly a move in the right direction and continues a slow but sustained climb back since the low of 3,986,654 passengers recorded in 2014. There was a big set-back at the start of the year with the withdrawal of Aer Lingus Regional from the Liverpool – Dublin link and with it the marketing of Dublin as a hub for transatlantic flights. The slow recovery in passenger figures during 2017 primarily being due to new services introduced by Ryanair, Wizzair and Blue Air. The passenger charter scene shows improvement with an increase in TUI/Thomson Inclusive Tour services, a good season for football charters with both Liverpool and Everton in European Competition, plus a number of Lapland and Santa flights in the lead-in to Christmas 2017. Freight continues to fall in 2017 – now just 3% of that a decade ago.
Total aircraft movements, as recorded by the CAA stand at 56,643 in 2017 compared to 62,441 in 2016. This total is well down on the past, but much is due to a big reduction in light aircraft training and GA in general. Airliner movements are again on a slow increase.
For the record, the CAA figures for 2017 show the break-down to be:
Commercial - Air Transport 35,968, Air Taxi 773, Positioning 412, Local Movements 6.
Non-Commercial - Test and Training 87, Other by Air Transport Operators 14, Aero Club 16,553, Private 1,749, Official 16, Military 269, Business Aviation 1,569.
2017 SCHEDULED AIRLINE, CHARTER AND FREIGHT ACTIVITY
SCHEDULED AIRLINE ACTIVITY
AER LINGUS
Just seventeen rotations this year with the final flight, late afternoon on 5th January, operated by Stobart ATR-72 EI-FAV. We therefore said goodbye to Aer Lingus for the third time and lost the latest opportunity for transit through a hub.
Dublin year round service to 05/01 3-4 flights a day ENDED ATR-72 aircraft, operated by Stobart.
BLUE AIR
Great announcement in 2016 was that Blue Air were to base a 737-800(189 seats) aircraft from the start of the summer schedules. YR-BMH was duly painted in a 'City of Liverpool' scheme. Flights to Alicante(3 per week), Hamburg (4 per week), Milan-Bergamo(4 per week) and Rome(daily) were operated. Hamburg struggled from the off with fierce competition from three airlines at Manchester and ended on 4th June after just over two months of poor loads. The based aircraft changed to a 737-700(144 seats) from 2nd July and apart from a couple of short changes back to a -800 for maintenance purposes remained for the rest of the year. Flights continued into the winter period although with reductions in frequency to each destination. Flights also commenced to Larnaca on 27th June using a Cyprus based aircraft with two rotations per week. They continued for the peak summer months only with the final flight on 19th September.
The established non-based Romanian routes to Bacau, Cluj-Napoca and Bucharest continued throughout the year. Bucharest performed best with an approximate average load factor of 85%. Bacau averaged 80% and Cluj-Napoca 60%. The based flights to Milan-Bergamo and Rome peaked at 76% and 83% in August having increased rather slowly over the previous months.
Alicante year round service from 29/04 2-3 flights a week NEW
Bacau year round service 2 flights a week
Bucharest year round service 3 to 4 flights a week
Cluj-Napoca year round service 2 flights a week
Hamburg year round service from 31/03 to 04/06 4 flights a week NEW/ENDED
Larnaca peak summer service from 27/06 to 19/09 2 flights a week NEW
Milan-Bergamo year round service from 31/03 3-4 flights a week NEW
Rome year round service from 26/03 5-7 flights a week NEW
EASYJET
Easyjet served the same twenty-eight destinations in 2017 as they did in 2016. However Venice was introduced as a new destination and commenced on 31st October with two rotations per week. There were then twenty year round, five summer, two peak summer and two winter ski destinations. Seven aircraft were based throughout the year - five A319 and two A320. A similar number of rotations were operated in 2017 at 8043 compared with 8158 in 2016. Jersey saw the largest rise in passengers over 2016 up 12%, Larnaca was up 11% and both Belfast and the Isle of Man up 5%.
Bodrum was reduced to one flight per week from two in 2016.
Alicante year round service 4-7 flights a week
Amsterdam year round service 14-18 flights a week
Barcelona year round service 4-12 flights a week
Belfast Int. year round service 30-40 flights a week
Berlin year round service 4-5 flights a week
Bodrum summer service from 28/03 to 24/10 1 flight a week
Bordeaux summer service from 13/05 to 07/10 2-4 flights a week
Faro year round service 3-8 flights a week
Fuertaventura year round service 1-2 flights a week
Geneva year round service 2-19 flights a week
Grenoble winter ski service to 15/04 from 16/12 1 flight a week
Isle of Man year round service 7-10 flights a week
Jersey year round service 7-11 flights a week
Krakow year round service 3 flights a week
Lanzarote year round service 2 flights a week
Lisbon year round service 3-4 flights a week
Larnaca year round service 2 flights a week
Madrid year round service 4-7 flights a week
Mahon peak summer service from 25/06 to 03/09 3 flights a week
Malaga year round service 3-7 flights a week
Nantes peak summer service from 24/06 to 02/09 2 flights a week
Naples summer service from 28/03 to 04/11 2-3 flights a week
Nice year round service 2-8 flights a week
Palma year round service 2-14 flights a week
Paris year round service 4-7 flights a week
Rhodes summer service from 22/04 to 28/10 2 flights a week
Salzburg winter ski service to 15/04 from 09/12 1 flight a week
Venice year round service from 31/10 2 flights a week NEW
Zante summer service from 11/05 to 26/10 2 flights a week
FLYBE
The Isle of Man service continued to be operated by Stobart ATR-72s throughout the year with passengers showing a 10% increase over 2016. Approximate average load factor was 70% over the year. The token Belfast City service begun with the winter schedule in 2016 continued throughout the year. Winter months had five flights per week(not Tuesday or Wednesday) whilst the summer schedule had daily flights. Passengers dropped by 67% to 35K compared with 2016, largely due to less rotations being offered.
Belfast City year round service 5-7 flights a week
Isle of Man year round service 25 flights a week, using Stobart ATR-71 aircraft
Newquay peak summer service from 27/05 to 02/09 1 flight a week
RYANAIR
Ryanair served thirty-three destinations in 2017, twenty-nine carried over from 2016 and four new. Three of these: Bari(2 per week), Girona(2 per week) and Prague(4 per week) commenced with the summer schedule on March 26th whilst the fourth to Milan(3 per week) commenced with the winter schedule on 31st October. Bergerac, Las Palmas and Pisa finished at the end of the summer schedule whereas they continued through the winter in 2016. There were twenty-six year round, five summer and two peak summer destinations.
Three aircraft were based up to 25th March, then four before reducing to three again from 1st November. 2017 saw a 4% increase in rotations to 5940 compared with 5696 in 2016.
The new services to Bari and Girona performed very well but Prague excelled carrying 56K passengers at an approximate average load factor of 93%. Milan averaged 77% for its three months of operation considerably better than the Blue Air Milan-Bergamo service which then saw a decline towards the end of the year. The summer schedule had two flights per week to Las Palmas compared with one in 2016 whilst Londonderry was reduced to two compared with five in 2016.
Alicante year round service 5-11 flights a week
Barcelona year round service 4-7 flights a week
Bari summer service from 28/03 to 31/10 2 flights a week NEW
Bergerac year round service to 28/10 2 to 4 flights a week
Cork year round service 5 flights a week
Derry year round service 2-5 flights a week
Dublin year round service 23-25 flights a week
Faro year round service 2-8 flights a week
Fuertaventura year round service 1-2 flights a week
Girona summer service from 26/03 to 29/10 2 flights a week NEW
Ibiza summer service from 27/03 to 27/10 3 flights a week
Knock year round service 5-6 flights a week
Krakow year round service 3-4 flights a week
Lanzarote year round service 2 to 5 flights a week
Las Palmas year round service to 28/10 2 flights a week
Malaga year round service 4-13 flights a week
Malta year round service 2 flights a week
Marrakesh year round service 2 flights a week
Milan year round service from 31/10 3 flights a week NEW
Nimes peak summer service from 02/06 to 29/09 2 flights a week
Palma summer service from 26/03 to 31/10 7 flights a week
Pisa year round service to 27/10 2 flights a week
Porto year round service 2 flights a week
Poznan year round service 3-4 flights a week
Prague year round service from 26/03 4 flights a week NEW
Reus summer service from 26/03 to 25/10 2 flights a week
Rhodes peak summer service from 03/06 to 30/09 2 flights a week
Sofia year round service 2-3 flights a week
Szczecin year round service 2-3 flights a week
Tenerife South year round service 1-3 flights a week
Vilnius year round service 2 flights a week
Warsaw-Modlin year round service 4-6 flights a week
Wroclaw year round service 2-3 flights a week
WIZZAIR
The established Wizzair routes to Budapest, Gdansk, Katowice and Warsaw-Chopin continued throughout the year with an additional weekly rotation being added during the peak summer months. Approximate average load factors for the year were 87% for Budapest and Gdansk, 88% for Katowice and 85% for Riga.
The additional Romanian destination of Craiova was added from the start of the summer schedule with 2-3 flights per week. It finished on 27th October but despite having an average load factor of 82% would not continue in 2018.
Flights to Lublin in Poland commenced on 27th May with two flights per week and continued for rest of the year. Wizzair carried 260K passengers in 2017 a 38% increase over 2016.
Budapest year round service 2-3 flights a week
Craiova summer service from 27/03 to 27/10 2-3 flights a week NEW/ENDED
Gdansk year round service 3-4 flights a week
Katowice year round service 2-3 flights a week
Lublin year round service from 27/05 2 flights a week NEW
Riga year round service 2 flights a week
Warsaw year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
2017 CHARTER REPORT
INCLUSIVE TOURS
Tui increased their weekly departures to three for 2017. Ibiza on Mondays commenced on 1st May and ended on 2nd October. Palma on Tuesdays and Saturdays commenced on 2nd May and ended on 31st October. Monday and Tuesday flights were operated by Canadian registered Sunwing aircraft whilst the Saturday flight was operated in house using a 737-800 (apart from 6th May when 757 G-CEPU substituted). Monthly load factors were generally in the 90+% range.
SANTA’S LAPLAND
Small Planet operated three A321 flights to Ivalo on 29th November, 3rd December and 19thDecember, each Lapland Adventure returning two days later. Enter Air operated to Enontekio with a 737-800 on 20th December returning the following day, while a few days earlier a Primera B.737-800 had operated to Akureyi.
GENERAL
The following general charters were noted during 2017:
Private ski break charters to Sion were flown by Welcome Air Do.328 in January and Tyrol Air in April and to Chambery by Gain Jet B.737-400 in February. For a break in the sun a Titan A.320 took a party to Tenerife and back in March. In the other direction a private charter from Odense arrived in March on a Sun Air Do.328JET and departed several days later, while in late August (Creamfields weekend, but maybe just a co-incidence) a Germania Airbus A.321 from Zurich on 25th, the passengers returning home on 29th.
An interesting source of early morning inbound charters were HMG official Syrian refugee flights direct from Beruit, or via Antalaya, in January a Travel Service Boeing 737-800, in April and October a Freebird Airbus A.320 and in July a TUI Nederlands Boeing 737-800.
The market for weekend breaks in Liverpool from Norway, including at least a top LFC home game has been strong with at least six charters operated. These involved Wideroe using Dash 8s from Stavanger in March, September and October, and Alesund in May; while Enter Air Boeing 737-800s operated from Oslo in May and October.
An annual reason for outbound charter flights activity is a pilgrimage to Lourdes. In 2017 these involved a CityJet RJ-85 in late May, while the Liverpool Diocese Lourdes Pilgrimage in late July involved an Enter Air Boeing 737-800, an Albastar Boeing 737-400, and outbound only, a CityJet Su-95.
Not all sport club charters are for football. In March St Helens RLC flew out to Perpignan for an away game in March, however no French teams were noted arriving at LJLA in 2017. While the dscription as a ‘sport’ may be stretching matters, WWE Wrestlers departed to Stansted on a GainJet Boeing 757-200 in May after performing in Liverpool. A somewhat different organisation arriving for a performance was Andre Rieu and Orchestra in December, using an Air X Boeing 737-500 from Maastrict, departing to Luton. Other stars performing in Central Liverpool and at Creamfields Festival arrived and/or departed by biz-jet aircraft.
DOMESTIC FOOTBALL
There were at least seventy domestic football related charters during 2017. Over half (38) were operated by the Cello Aviation 146 G-RAJJ. Their 737 G-MISG visited just once. There were ten visits by British Midland Regional E145 (8 aircraft), four visits by Eastern E145 (3 aircraft) and one by Eastern Saab 2000. Jota Aviation had seven visits using three of their 146s.
There were even three uses of foreign registered aircraft - a VLM Fokker 50, Maleth 737-300 and Gainjet 737-400.
EUROPEAN FOOTBALL
Both Liverpool FC and Everton FC qualified for European competition, season 2017/2018 – LFC in the Champions League, EFC in the Europa Cup. The EFC campaign involved 10 matches, with opponents Ruzomberok (Czech Republic), Hadjuk Split (Croatia), Atalanta (Italy), Apollon (Cyprus) and FC Lyon (France); while LFC faced TSG Hoffenheim (Germany), Sevilla (Spain), Spartak Moscow (Russia) and MK Maribor (Sovenia). While EFC’s run in Europe ended in December 2017, LFC went on to the final in May 2018 – so the knock-out rounds will be covered in the 2018 Report.
From the aviation enthusiast’s viewpoint, the best games were those generated by the Europa League: in July when Ruzomberok arrived on a Czech Republic Government Tupolev Tu-154M, Atalanta both the away game in September and home game in November and Lyon at Goodison in October. Aviation wise LFC’s main interest revolved around the Anfield games against Maribor in November and Spartak in December. Worth noting that all 3 passenger wide-body aircraft seen at Liverpool in 2017 were all Boeing 767s connected with football, either transporting teams or fans.
For a summary of the games and all the aircraft calling at LJLA involved in European Competition:
derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/28480/matches-europe-season-2017-2018
There are further football charters to record beyond domestic and European competition appearances. For example In February EFC travelled out to Dubai for a few days of warm weather training. LFC travelled to and from Australia and the Far East by Aeronexus Boeing 767-300 in late May. Pre-season games brought in GainJet’s Boeing 757, a Tradeair Fokker 100 and Aeronexus’s Boeing 767 again as teams travelled around Europe. It was not all about Liverpool’s teams either, in August MUFC supporters used LJLA to depart to and return from Skopje for the EUFA Super Cup by Titan Boeing 757-200 due to slot issues at Manchester Airport.
FREIGHT
Inbound and outbound freight totalled 123 tonnes in 2017 down 53% on 2016.
There were just thirteen flights noted in 2017 the largest being a Ukraine Air Alliance An12BK which arrived early morning on 6th November. Other flights were five by Saab 340 of Fleet Air, Sprintair and Skycab, four by Do228 of Businesswings and Arcus Air, two by Cessna 208 Caravan and one by C90 King Air.
DIVERSIONS
A new section and I cannot think why it has never been incorporated before, as ‘diversion’ days have always provided interest and something different for the enthusiast. True the great days of fog closing Manchester or London’s Airports have passed – both through cleaner air and especially most larger airliners and their crews being able to Cat.III “autoland” even in severe low visibility. Snow fall remains a major cause of Airport closure while increasingly, strong turbulent cross-winds are making landing a challenge for T-tail designs and winglet fitted airliners. Excuses to divert in, include low visibility (fog), snow, thunderstorms, cross-winds, head winds (increasing fuel consumption), ‘hole’ in runway, fire within airport boundary, industrial action, suspicious package in terminal, light aircraft incident on runway and en route medical emergency. No big notable days of inbound diversions during 2017, however diverted airliners arrived on an amazing 45 different days during the year. While the majority were from Leeds, Manchester, Isle of Man or Dublin, others were heading for Chester, Doncaster-Sheffield, Jersey, Luton, Coventry, Stansted, Southend or Heathrow.
There were 6 particularly interesting days for inbound diversions: Thurs 23/2 with 6 from Manchester due cross winds (incl Thomas Cook, British Airways and Monarch and nearly Icelandair and KLM); Tue 28/2 when Manchester was hit by ‘double whammy’ with snow in morning (British Airways, Aer Lingus, Swiss) and a ground fire in evening (British Airways, Condor, Thomson); Fri 18/8 Manchester congestion following a major overhead thunderstorm (Thomas Cook, Monarch); Fri 22/9 Manchester suffered a break-up of runway surface (4 x Ryanair, KLM, British Airways, EasyJet); Fri 27/10 low visibility at Manchester (3 x Flybe); Sun 10/12 snow showers in SE, so 3 x Wizzair from Luton, 2 x Ryanair from Stansted and British Airways (which was due industrial action at Heathrow), the snow showers going through into the next day with 2 x Stobard ATR-72s from Southend.
However LJLA lost flights diverted away on 6 occasions though fog or winds, Tues 31/1 late night fog; Thurs 23/2 winds; Tue 19/9 morning fog; Tue 26/9 late night fog; Mon 16/10 cross-winds; Mon 18/12 evening fog.
CHANGES IN AND AROUND THE AIRPORT
Andrew Cornish, CEO of the Airport Company resigned his position and left LJLA in June 2017. We wish him well in his new job. Peel Holdings, as LJLA owners have taken their time in appointing a replacement CEO.
Reburbishment inside the terminal, mostly undertaken early in the year, saw the completion of a 3 year rolling programme to improve and relocate retail and food outlets in the air-side area.
If anyone wants to add to this topic - drop me a PM with suggested text to add-in
GENERAL AVIATION
During the year regular activity was provided by 2 Excel Aviation, Diamond Executive and Capital Aviation who were replaced later in the year by Woodgate Aviation. Capital Aviation operate a regular Beech 200 King Air flight most weeks departing to Wick on a Monday morning, returning on a Friday afternoon while Diamond Executive flew a DA.42 Twin Star to Exeter some Monday mornings, returning on a Friday afternoon. 2 Excel Aviation using Navajo Chieftains operated the IoM medical link on a when required (at least several times each week, very occasionally upto 4 times in a day) until 31st March 2017, when the contract was switched to Woodgate Aviation, also using Navajo Chieftain aircraft from 1st April.
PRINCIPAL RESIDENT GA COMPANIES:[/font]
Ravenair/Liverpool Aviation Services: Ravenair are the lead company based on the GA apron operating a fleet of twin and single engine aircraft, offered for survey contract work and pilot training – Partenavia P.68, Aztec, Seneca, Cherokee and Tomahawk aircraft.
Liverpool Flying School/Keenair Aviation Services: Right at the end of 2016 LFS purchased a second Cherokee aircraft that entered the active fleet in January, bringing the training and club fleet to 4 Tomahawk and 2 Cherokee aircraft. A Bellanca Citabria aerobatic aircraft is partly owned by Mr Keen.
Lomac Aviators: Commenced 2017 with 3 Cherokee, 3 Tomahawk, 2 Cessna aircraft and a Turbo Arrow. During the year a Cherokee and the Cessna 172 departed, while one of the Tomahawks underwent a major check and a wing swop. The fleet though has remained very much active.
Merseyflight: No changes to the fleet during 2017 with a Cherokee and 3 Tomahawk aircraft active all year.
The list of aircraft visiting Liverpool in 2017 which follows provides some indication of the numbers of different G.A. aircraft. In a wide definition of General Aviation, this comprises of biz-jet types, with 23 types and 401 different aircraft which form over half this section! G.A. singles (which include biz-props such as the Piper Malibu series and TBM-700 series) number 31 types and 180 different aircraft – there was a time when Piper Cherokee and Cessna singles would number well over 100 each, while Business and G.A. twins come in at 17 types and 113 different aircraft, again way down on, say, 20 years ago when Aztecs, Senecas, Navajos, Barons, Queen and King Airs dominated. The return of a single visiting DH.104 Dove is a reminder of years in the ‘60s when over 50 different aircraft would appear each year.
