Old apron v new apron square area

[trumpeter]

Does anyone know how these figures compare? e.g. old apron v new apron area, circa opening of new terminal and old apron v apron today?

[viscount]

I cannot answer with detailed numbers, but a few details I remember could help.

The north airfield apron for jets and larger airliners was an awkward shape with less than ideal angled turn from/onto the taxiways. The western apron added considerable space, but with a variety of interesting slopes, while runways could be closed and used for parking eg St Etienne 1977, M/cr closures 1979 etc. With this flexibility, apron space was not an issue.

With the move in 1986 to the South Airfield, for a while the North Airfield remained available for parking eg Air Ops Tristar, 1986 M/cr diverts. This was necessary as the apron on the South Airfield was very limited in size. The initial concrete was restricted by the finance provided under the terms of Government grant. The DoT/CAA(whoever) worked out the normal passenger use expected (and remember that in 1983 Liverpool was at its nadir in terms of passenger throughput) and stated the size of concrete required. I can well recall Rod Hill regaling MAS/FoLA meetings with tales of his meetings with Civil Servants and eventually going to a meeting armed with scale cut-outs of aircraft and the apron to show that night mail and night stopping scheduled pax aircraft could physically not be accommodated - let alone add a Ford's freight aircraft, and won a little more concrete. The need for space to handle diversions was not considered necessary. This was in the days of hand marshalling of all arrivals and without marked parking bays. Oddly as the new apron grew in size the number of aircraft that could be accommodated did not grow proportionally due to H+S rules regarding marked bays, apron roadways etc.

Quite when the apron concrete exceeded that of the old north airfield, |I have no idea.

While not a direct answer to your question, I hope this information around the topic is of interest.

[viscount]

While typing the above reply, a few apron stories spring to mind.

I well remember, from the balcony, watching a British Eagle Britannia (1964-1968) which had been parked east facing, taxiing from Gate 2 to the east exit (by Hangar 2) for 26. However the wing of an aircraft by the hangar did not allow the Britannia to pass, so with a crew member hanging out of the front door, the Britannia was reversed under its own power down the full length of the apron until it could be turned using the finger apron space.

On another occasion (maybe mid 70s with the MAS Vampire) a gang of us running across the west apron to stop a "parked" Islander that was merrily trundling downhill towards other parked aircraft.

There was also the occasion when a British Eagle aircraft performed power runs on the Western, blowing over not just one, but two Tri-Pacer/Colt aircraft in the same day.