Annual Report - JLA Airlines, Visiting A/c & Residents- 2015
Jun 25, 2020 11:17:32 GMT 1
spitfire250 likes this
Post by viscount on Jun 25, 2020 11:17:32 GMT 1
One advantage of Covid-19 'lock-down' is that it has created time to return to old projects and complete some very 'stalled' ones. Some 35% of this material was compiled in Spring 2016, but there were always more urgent matters, so it rather got put on the shelf (or the computer equivalent) for several years. It has been revived by Richard Roseby as part of a drive to restore our record of producing annual records every year since the late '50s, leaving only 2016 now outstanding, while in the 'Nostalgia' section Brian Jones has worked his way through the 1960s and is now in the mid 1970s with lots of newly published detail and digitally accessible.
Just be aware when reading through that this material is purely relating to 2015 ONLY, not 2019 (which has already been posted on its own thread), also on NWAN and in a similar format so while looking rather the same, the detail is totally different! The annual reviews and movements reports for 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been on this NWAN section for a fair while.
FOREWORD
While this report is somewhat late (by several years), it has nevertheless been compiled and posted in an effort to fill the gaps and restore a complete annual coverage, maintained in this style of format and detail since the mid 1980’s, recording the activities and changes during each year at Liverpool Airport. Indeed the 'Part 2' annual listing of airlines, nationalities, aircraft types and residents goes back to the early ‘60s. A superb research resource for the future.
INTRODUCTION
Passengers handled at LJLA rose by 8% in 2015 to 4,301,644 (CAA figure) compared with 2014 so reversing the downward trend for that year. Overall movements rose by 7% to 55,905 with air transport movements up 10% to 32,882. This was a good result due in part to the three ‘new’ airlines joining the established five during the year. Aer Lingus restart their service to Dublin in October with their A320 aircraft whilst the Czech airline CSA operated a short summer season to Prague. The Spanish airline Vueling operated three flights over the Christmas period to Barcelona as a taster for their summer service due to commence in 2016.
There was also a large expansion by FlyBe at LJLA with them restarting services to Belfast City from February and taking on easyJet on the Amsterdam route from September. Edinburgh was also reintroduced after a ten year gap from the start of the winter schedules. Wizz Air added Riga to their list of Destinations from April.
From 22nd April Citiwing routed their Blackpool to Isle of Man service through LJLA following a problem with security screening at Blackpool. This continued with two outbound flights per day until the month end.
There was just a single inclusive tour flight this year to Verona in May.
Passenger charters totalled 122 for the year carrying some 13500 pax. The vast majority of these were associated with the two local football clubs but with no major airlift this year numbers were somewhat depleted.
It was also a poor year for freight with just fifteen charters – 198 tonnes were handled down 16% on 2014.
PASSENGER, MOVEMENT AND FREIGHT TOTALS FOR 2015
AER LINGUS 2015
Aer Lingus recommenced services to Dublin on 23rd October operating twice daily except for Thursday and Friday when there were three rotations. A320 aircraft were used throughout giving a significant boost to passenger numbers, although Ryanair also increased their flights from three to four per day on weekdays from the start of the winter schedule.
Aer Lingus previously operated into LJLA from November 2004 to June 2006.
BLUE AIR 2015
Blue Air continued their Bucharest service throughout the year with three flights per week. A second summer only service to Bacau commenced on 31st March with two flights per week with the last being on 10th October. Three additional rotations were operated over the Christmas period.
CSA-CZECH AIRLINES 2015
CSA finally commenced their new service to Prague on 17th July operating twice weekly until 12th October. Just 3838 passengers were carried giving an approximate average load factor of 54%.
EASYJET 2015
EasyJet carried twenty-nine of their 2014 destinations forward into 2015 with Ibiza having finished in September 2014. These were nineteen year- round, three winter, four summer and three peak summer destinations. However, Innsbruck ended on 19th April and also Newquay on 30th August. These routes started in 2008 and 2013 and carried 52K and 16K passengers respectively. There was one new route for 2015 to the Greek island of Zakinthos. This was for the summer period only and commenced on 24th April finishing on 22nd October – two flights per week were offered.
The number of based aircraft remained static throughout the year at seven – five A319 and two A320 aircraft.
Training aircraft were based regularly at LJLA appearing all months except March and July to September. On three occasions circuits were flown at LJLA with Doncaster, Newquay, Prestwick, Brest, Chateauroux and Nimes also being visited.
FLYBE 2015
The Belfast City service recommenced on 2nd February - for the third time – with three/four return flights per day. 86K passengers were carried during 2015 peaking in August with 11K. On7th September a based aircraft arrived (G-JEDU) and FlyBe joined easyJet on the Amsterdam route operating three flights per day on weekdays and three over the weekend. Passenger figures for the first eight months of the year averaged 17K per month but this rose to 23K for the final four months – a 35% increase. With the start of the winter schedule FlyBe also introduced a daily service to Edinburgh although the overall load factor was disappointing at just 28%.
FlyBe continued to operate their Isle of Man service throughout the year with three or four flights each weekday and three over the weekend. Two additional Embrear E175 rotations were offered during TT week.
All routes were operated by 78 seat Q400 aircraft.
RYANAIR 2015
Ryanair maintained thirty-one of their 2014 destinations for 2015 – Reus having finished in November 2014 and Shannon having transferred to Manchester in October 2014. There were twenty-one year-round, seven summer and three peak summer (Kos, Nimes and Rhodes) destinations. However their Oslo-Torp service did not operate during August.
Based aircraft for these services were generally three during the winter months and four during the summer months. There was also an extra fifth aircraft during August operating additional services to Alicante, Bergerac, Carcasonne, Dublin, Faro, Knock, Lanzarote, Limoges, Malaga, Malta, Porto, Rhodes, Szczecin, Tenerife South and Vilnius. However from January to March up to seven aircraft were based. From mid-November there were only three increasing to four in December
.
Services to the following destinations were flown by a mix of based and non-based aircraft.
Ryanair’s only 737-700 aircraft visited in November operating the two late evening rotations.
VUELING 2015
The second new airline for LJLA for 2015 operated three rotations to Barcelona over the Christmas period prior to commencing a regular service for summer 2016. A320 aircraft were used.
WIZZ AIR 2015
Wizz Air continued their A320 year-round services to Gdansk and Warsaw-Chopin throughout the year with Gdansk carrying 53K passengers and Warsaw 64K. Overall load factors were in the high eighties for both routes.
The 24th April saw a new year-round service commence to Riga in Latvia with two flights per week. 20K passengers were carried in the year with an average load factor of about 80%.
INCLUSIVE TOURS
Just a single inclusive tour flight operated in 2015. This was run by Newmarket and departed to Verona on 20th May returning a week later and using a Small Planet A320. 157 people used this service.
Other inclusive tour holidays were available from Newmarket, Thomson and First Choice utilising the scheduled services of LJLA based airlines.
SANTAS LAPLAND
There were two ‘Santa’ charters operated this year. Rather early on 27th November a Small Planet A320 operated to Ivalo in Finland (175 passengers) returning on 29th whilst on 21st December there was a day trip to Pajala in Sweden (159 passengers) operated by an Enter Air B738
GENERAL CHARTERS
First private charter of the year was a Welcome Air D328 returning with skiers from Berne on 4th January. On 13th February a Maleth B733 carried out a crew training flight from Leeds to Dublin. The longest private charter of the year saw the Gain Jet B752 depart for St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands on 2nd April returning on 10th. A Cello Aviation B462 also flew a private charter on 14th April routing from Dublin to Glasgow.
A series of four flights for language students from Valladolid in northern Spain started on 24th April with further flights on 8th and 22nd May and 5th June. Alba Star B734 and Orbest Airlines A320 aircraft were used albeit with Envelop flight numbers.
Citiwings flew a number of sports charters in 2015 from and to the Isle of Man. On three Sundays in May, June and July their Van Air LET910 aircraft arrived in the morning and then returned in the evening. Later in the year they visited on three Saturdays in September and October with the aircraft day stopping at LJLA.
2015 was a busy year for pilgrims departing to Tarbes-Lourdes with seven rotations. The first on 27th May was by Transavia B738 returning on 1st June. On 24th July there were five outbound flights all returning on 31st. There were two flights by Denim Air F100, two by Alba star B734 and one by Cityjet RJ85. There was also a departure on 31st July with an Alba Star aircraft returning to Tarbes with pilgrims who returned home on 6th August.
BAe Warton was closed over the weekend in 2015 so their aircraft routed through LJLA on three occasions. Their 146 visited on 27th May and 19th December routing from Bari and then on to Warton two days later. Their E145 visited from Farnborough in July again leaving for Warton to days later.
A British Midland Regional E145 flew a private charter from Munich on 11th June and there were two charters to Farnborough in September using a Jota Aviation B462 and an Eastern E145. On 10th October a Europe Airpost B733 routed from and to Perpignan with visitors for the European Rugby Final in Manchester. On 12th October an Avanti Air F100 flew a private charter to Paris. WWE Superstars arrived on 8th November aboard an F100 of Avanti Air routing from Madrid and departing to Manchester on 9th. On 21st November an Air X B735 routed from Nice to Cairo the aircraft carrying ‘U2 Tour’ titles and finally a Welcome Air D328 flew a private charter to Sion on 27th December.
DOMESTIC FOOTBALL CHARTERS
During the second half of the 2014/15 domestic season Liverpool FC flew to away matches on seven occasions – Heathrow for Wimbledon by BMR E145 and then by Cello Aviation B462 to Teesside for Sunderland, Gatwick for Crystal Palace, Southampton, Cardiff for Swansea and Luton for Arsenal and Chelsea. They also arrived back with BMR from Heathrow after their Capital One Cup match against Chelsea in January. Visiting teams for LFC home matches all used BMR – West Ham and Spurs from Stansted, Newcastle and Crystal Palace from Gatwick. Chelsea arrived from Farnborough for their Capital One Cup match in January by BMR departing to Gatwick with Titan. Finally LFC returned by Titan B733 from Stansted after their FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea on 19th April.
Everton FC also flew to four away matches with BMR – Stansted for West Ham, Biggin Hill for Crystal Palace, Heathrow for Chelsea and Cardiff for Swansea. Visiting teams arrived with BMR on three occasions – West Ham and Spurs from Stansted and Newcastle. Southampton arrived by Air X B733 and Sunderland travelled from Newcastle by Eastern E145.
The first half of the 2015/16 season again saw LFC taking to the air with Cello Aviation arriving from Luton after their match against Arsenal and from Stansted against Spurs. For their Capital One Cup match they flew to Southampton in December arriving back from Bournemouth. They then flew to and from Newcastle, returned from Luton after their Watford match and to Teesside for their match against Sunderland. Visiting teams to Anfield arrived by VLM on three occasions – Bournemouth, Norwich and Bournemouth again for the Capital One Cup. West Ham arrived from Stansted with BMR as did Swansea from Cardiff whilst Southampton flew with Maleth Aero (B733) and Crystal Palace from Gatwick with Eastern.
Everton FC flew with BMR on eight occasions for away games –Southampton, Stansted for Spurs, Cardiff for Swansea, Luton for Arsenal, Bournemouth, Teesside for Middlesborough (Capital One Cup), Norwich and Newcastle. Visitors arriving for home matches were Watford from Luton by Denim Air, Chelsea from Farnborough by BMR, Norwich by VLM (Capital One Cup), Sunderland from Newcastle by Eastern and Crystal Palace from Gatwick by Eastern.
Visitors from Stavanger for a long weekend break while also taking in an LFC home match arrived by Wideroe Q400 in March to see Manchester United, May for QPR, September, October for Southampton and November for Crystal Palace. In November for the match against Swansea they arrived by Small Planet A320. For the QPR game there were also visitors from Oslo arriving by Jettime B733.
There were also two visits by non-Liverpool teams during the year. Swansea arrived by BMR on 3rd January from Cardiff to play Tranmere Rovers whilst Watford arrived by Denim Air from Luton on 25th August to play Preston North End.
EUROPA CUP FOOTBALL CHARTERS
For the 2014/15 season the Liverpool FC match against Besiktas FC provided two visiting aircraft arriving on 18th February, a Corendon B738 and a Turkish Airlines A330 both from Istanbul and returning there on 20th. For the return match LFC travelled to Istanbul aboard a Titan B752 on 25th February returning on 27th.
Everton FC travelled by Gain Jet B734 to Berne for their match against BSC Young Boys on 18th February. Supporters left on 19th aboard an A319 of Germania. Both aircraft returned on 25 February. BSC Young Boys arrived from Berne aboard an Denim Air F100 on 25th February with supporters arriving the following day by Skywork D328 and Edelweiss A320 before departing on 27th. Dynamo Kiev arrived on 11th March aboard an A320 of Windrose. For the return match EFC travelled to Kiev aboard a Titan B752 on 18th March with supporters leaving the following day on a Transavia B738. Both aircraft returned on 20th.
For the 2015/16 season LFC travelled to Bordeaux on 16th Setptember aboard a Titan B752 returning on 17th. The Sion team and supporters arrived on 30th September aboard a Saab 2000 of Darwin and a Q300 of InterSky before leaving on an InterSky ATR72 to Sion and the InterSky Q300 to Altenrheim. Kazan FC (capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan) arrived on 21st October aboard a Yamal Airlines A320 before departing to Krasnodar on 23rd. For the return match on LFC travelled on 3rd November by Gain Jet B752 returning on 6th. On 25th November Bordeaux FC travelled to LJLA aboard a Transavia France B738. Supporters arrived on the 26th by Volotea B717 (first visit of type) and HOP E145. All aircraft departed on 27th. The 9th December saw LFC depart to Geneva aboard a Titan B752 for their return match against Sion returning on 11th.
MISCELLANEOUS FOOTBALL CHARTERS
Everton FC travelled to Doha via Athens for mid-season training on 21 January aboard a Gain Jet B734 returning direct from there on 27th January.
Prior to the start of the 2015/16 domestic football season EFC travelled to Brize Norton on 11th July aboard a Cello B462 for a friendly against Swindon Town. On 24th July they used the same aircraft to visit Dundee for matches against Dundee and Hearts before returning on 29th.
Liverpool FC went further afield departing to Kuala Lumpur from Manchester (so avoiding a stop over in Dubai) and returning by Hi Fly A343 on 25th July. On 1st August thet flew to Helsinki by Gain Jet B752 retuning on 2nd and were in the air again later that day on a Cello B462 to Oxford for a friendly against Swindon Town returning on 3rd. An advance party from LFC travelled to Brize Norton on 1st by BMR E145. Finally Villareal departed by Air Nostrum CRJ200 to Castellon having played EFC on 2nd August at the end of their British tour.
There were just fifteen freight charters in 2015 mostly carrying inbound car parts. Bin Air (Germany) visited on five occasions with their Metro aircraft from Gyor, Paderborn and Ostrava(x3). Flightline (Spain) visited on four occasions also with Metro aircraft from Paderborn, Ostrava(x2) and Bologna. A Rose Air (Bulgaria) Antonov 26 visited in July and August from Turin and Katowice whilst an Aviavilsa (Lithuania) ATR42 arrived from Milan Bergamo in July. These three visits may have been due to disruption to the cross-channel ferries. There were also single visits by Aero Nova (Spain) and Air Taxi Europe (Poland) Metro aircraft from Gothenburg and Lydd respectively.
Finally a TNT/Panair Bae146 flew from and to Shannon on 5th September with horses for the racing at Haydock Park
The total freight handled at LJLA in 2015 was 198 tonnes down 16% on 2014.
There were 79 airliner diversions into LJLA in 2015. These were mostly weather related - snow, fog and cross winds but in the summer months airport congestion was a factor at both Manchester and Dublin. There was also one occasion of a blocked runway at Manchester.
Just under half of the diversions were Ryanair with fourteen each diverting from Manchester and Dublin. A further eight diverted from Leeds. FlyBe was in second place with fourteen –twelve from Manchester and two from Birmingham. These involved a variety of aircraft types and originating airports – Belfast City, IoM, Inverness, Edinburgh, Paris, Southampton, Bournemouth, Nantes Amsterdam and Aberdeen. Cat3 not being available would have been a factor here. EasyJet was next with thirteen diversions – eleven from Manchester and one each from Gatwick and IoM. There were also Manchester diversions by Loganair (Aberdeen and Glasgow), Monarch (Lanzarote), Icelandair (Keflavik), BMR (Aberdeen), Sun-Air (Billund x2), Thomas Cook (Dalaman) and Jet2 from Leeds (Alicante).
Our Wizz Air base attracted just two diversions during the year – a Doncaster bound flight from Warsaw and a Birmingham flight from Budapest.
Two days stand out as receiving a significant number of diversions. On 29th January the North West received a good covering of snow more so to the east of the region. LJLA received eleven diversions from Manchester including aircraft from Flybe (Q400), SAS (A320 and B738), Air Malta (A319), Ryanair (B738 x3), KLM (B738) and easyJet (A320 2x and A319 x1). On 18th March fog affected Manchester and diversions to LJLA included FlyBe (Q400 x3), Ryanair (B738), BMR (E145) and Sun-Air (D328).
Finally there were four diversions from Chester with Belugas visiting on 29th January from/to Toulouse, on 12th April from Toulouse and out to Chester on 13th and on 8th July from Hamburg departing to Chester on 9th. These were all due to cross winds. Also a BMR E145 diverted in on 2nd November due to visibility at Chester routing from Exeter (probably should have been Bristol!) before departing to Bristol late in the evening.
LIVERPOOL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
The Airport was awarded the accolade ‘City Business of the Year’ at a ceremony in Sefton Park’s Palm House in July. Later in the year it received a national Bronze Award for its customer service training programme.
DEVELOPMENTS INSIDE THE TERMINAL
During winter 2014/15 a ‘Commercial Development Plan’ involving an investment of £1m in retail infrastructure was carried out, with some relocation of existing units and construction of others to make the ‘retail experience’ of passing through the airport easier and more enjoyable. Further investment during the winter of 2015/16 looked to further improve the customer experience of the airport, replacing the remaining section of ‘Liverpool 08’ carpeting and a rolling programme of updating and renewing all passenger toilet facilities.
PASSENGER ‘LANDMARK’ PASSED
During August EasyJet passed a ‘landmark’ total of 35 million passengers carried through Liverpool Airport since they started operations from here in 1997 to just Amsterdam and Nice. Ryanair celebrated 10 years of having a base at Liverpool, with 4 aircraft overnight at Liverpool from 31st March 2005, although they had been operating into Liverpool since May 1988.
“HOLIDAY AIRPORT”
A ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary following staff and passengers around the airport was filmed over a 3 month period by Bristol based Plimsoll Productions. The 7 episode series, with a voice-over by Keith Chegwin, was broadcast by Channel 5 commencing mid July, however after only a few episodes the programme was withdrawn by Channel 5.
RUNWAY END SAFETY AREA
The Airport made it known that once a legal hurdle over the closure of Dungeon Lane and the reopening of Bailey’s Lane was cleared, that the fence around the ‘RESA’ would be constructed during the winter of 2015/16, which would totally seal-off public access across the 27 threshold. With hindsight we now know this process took rather longer to sort out and the announcement was premature as the fence was not constructed until summer 2020.
EMERGENCY EXERCISE
The Annual exercise to ensure smooth coordination between the emergency crews in the event of a major aircraft incident at the Airport took place on 5th February. The scenario being that a passenger airliner had undershoot a landing at the 27 end, effectively landing in the area that would become the RESA.
Just be aware when reading through that this material is purely relating to 2015 ONLY, not 2019 (which has already been posted on its own thread), also on NWAN and in a similar format so while looking rather the same, the detail is totally different! The annual reviews and movements reports for 2014, 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been on this NWAN section for a fair while.
2 0 1 5
ANNUAL REPORT ON ACTIVITY AND VISITING AIRCRAFT
AT LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT
AT LIVERPOOL JOHN LENNON AIRPORT
FOREWORD
While this report is somewhat late (by several years), it has nevertheless been compiled and posted in an effort to fill the gaps and restore a complete annual coverage, maintained in this style of format and detail since the mid 1980’s, recording the activities and changes during each year at Liverpool Airport. Indeed the 'Part 2' annual listing of airlines, nationalities, aircraft types and residents goes back to the early ‘60s. A superb research resource for the future.
SCHEDULED AIRLINE REPORT - 2015
INTRODUCTION
Passengers handled at LJLA rose by 8% in 2015 to 4,301,644 (CAA figure) compared with 2014 so reversing the downward trend for that year. Overall movements rose by 7% to 55,905 with air transport movements up 10% to 32,882. This was a good result due in part to the three ‘new’ airlines joining the established five during the year. Aer Lingus restart their service to Dublin in October with their A320 aircraft whilst the Czech airline CSA operated a short summer season to Prague. The Spanish airline Vueling operated three flights over the Christmas period to Barcelona as a taster for their summer service due to commence in 2016.
There was also a large expansion by FlyBe at LJLA with them restarting services to Belfast City from February and taking on easyJet on the Amsterdam route from September. Edinburgh was also reintroduced after a ten year gap from the start of the winter schedules. Wizz Air added Riga to their list of Destinations from April.
From 22nd April Citiwing routed their Blackpool to Isle of Man service through LJLA following a problem with security screening at Blackpool. This continued with two outbound flights per day until the month end.
There was just a single inclusive tour flight this year to Verona in May.
Passenger charters totalled 122 for the year carrying some 13500 pax. The vast majority of these were associated with the two local football clubs but with no major airlift this year numbers were somewhat depleted.
It was also a poor year for freight with just fifteen charters – 198 tonnes were handled down 16% on 2014.
PASSENGER, MOVEMENT AND FREIGHT TOTALS FOR 2015
MONTH PASSENGERS MOVEMENTS FREIGHT
(tonnes)
JANUARY 250,595 3,178 22
FEBRUARY 272,021 3,637 14
MARCH 320,751 4,236 15
APRIL 366,865 4,948 15
MAY 399,395 5,201 15
JUNE 393,012 5,410 23
JULY 426,945 5,248 24
AUGUST 465,738 5,774 23
SEPTEMBER 393,921 5,463 11
OCTOBER 394,189 5,271 11
NOVEMBER 311,046 3,680 14
DECEMBER 307,256 3,859 11
TOTAL 4,301,644 55,905 198
2015 SCHEDULED AIRLINE REPORT
AER LINGUS 2015
Aer Lingus recommenced services to Dublin on 23rd October operating twice daily except for Thursday and Friday when there were three rotations. A320 aircraft were used throughout giving a significant boost to passenger numbers, although Ryanair also increased their flights from three to four per day on weekdays from the start of the winter schedule.
Aer Lingus previously operated into LJLA from November 2004 to June 2006.
Dublin year round service from 23/10 16 flights a week NEW SERVICE
BLUE AIR 2015
Blue Air continued their Bucharest service throughout the year with three flights per week. A second summer only service to Bacau commenced on 31st March with two flights per week with the last being on 10th October. Three additional rotations were operated over the Christmas period.
Bacau summer service from 31/03 to 10/10 2 flights a week NEW SERVICE
Bacau christmas service from 17/12 to 23/12 3 flights
Bucharest year round service 3 flights a week
CSA-CZECH AIRLINES 2015
CSA finally commenced their new service to Prague on 17th July operating twice weekly until 12th October. Just 3838 passengers were carried giving an approximate average load factor of 54%.
Prague summer service from 17/07 to 12/10 2 flights a week NEW SERVICE
EASYJET 2015
EasyJet carried twenty-nine of their 2014 destinations forward into 2015 with Ibiza having finished in September 2014. These were nineteen year- round, three winter, four summer and three peak summer destinations. However, Innsbruck ended on 19th April and also Newquay on 30th August. These routes started in 2008 and 2013 and carried 52K and 16K passengers respectively. There was one new route for 2015 to the Greek island of Zakinthos. This was for the summer period only and commenced on 24th April finishing on 22nd October – two flights per week were offered.
The number of based aircraft remained static throughout the year at seven – five A319 and two A320 aircraft.
Training aircraft were based regularly at LJLA appearing all months except March and July to September. On three occasions circuits were flown at LJLA with Doncaster, Newquay, Prestwick, Brest, Chateauroux and Nimes also being visited.
Alicante year round service 4 to 10 flights a week
Amsterdam year round service 11 to 18 flights a week
Barcelona year round service 7 to 10 flights a week
Belfast Int. year round service 28 to 41 flights a week
Berlin year round service 4 to 6 flights a week
Bodrum summer service from 29/03 to 24/10 2 flights a week
Bordeaux peak summer service from 06/06 to 26/09 2 to 4 flights a week
Faro year round service 2 to 8 flights a week
Fuertaventura year round service 1 to 2 flights a week
Geneva year round service 4 to 19 flights a week
Grenoble winter service to 18/04 from 12/12 1 flight a week
Innsbruck winter service to 19/04 1 flight a week SERVICE ENDED
Isle of Man year round service 7 to 11 flights a week
Jersey year round service 3 to 11 flights a week
Krakow year round service 2 to 4 flights a week
Lanzarote year round service 2 flights a week
Lisbon year round service 2 to 4 flights a week
Larnaca year round service 2 flights a week
Madrid year round service 4 to 7 flights a week
Mahon peak summer service from 28/06 to 01/09 4 flights a week
Malaga year round service 2 to 7 flights a week
Nantes peak summer service from 29/06 to 30/08 2 flights a week
Naples summer service from 29/03 to 31/10 2 to 4 flights a week
Newquay peak summer service from 28/06 to 30/08 2 flights a week SERVICE ENDED
Nice year round service 2 to 8 flights a week
Palma year round service 2 to 14 flights a week
Paris year round service 4 to 7 flights a week
Rhodes summer service from 25/04 to 31/10 2 flights a week
Salzburg winter service to 18/04 from 12/12 1 flight a week
Zante summer service from 24/04 to 22/10 2 flights a week NEW SERVICE
FLYBE 2015
The Belfast City service recommenced on 2nd February - for the third time – with three/four return flights per day. 86K passengers were carried during 2015 peaking in August with 11K. On7th September a based aircraft arrived (G-JEDU) and FlyBe joined easyJet on the Amsterdam route operating three flights per day on weekdays and three over the weekend. Passenger figures for the first eight months of the year averaged 17K per month but this rose to 23K for the final four months – a 35% increase. With the start of the winter schedule FlyBe also introduced a daily service to Edinburgh although the overall load factor was disappointing at just 28%.
FlyBe continued to operate their Isle of Man service throughout the year with three or four flights each weekday and three over the weekend. Two additional Embrear E175 rotations were offered during TT week.
All routes were operated by 78 seat Q400 aircraft.
Amsterdam year round service from 07/09 18 flights a week NEW SERVICE
Belfast City year round service from 02/02 17 to 29 flights a week NEW SERVICE
Edinburgh year round service from 25/10 to 31/10 7 flights a week NEW SERVICE
Isle of Man year round service 18 to 23 flights a week
RYANAIR 2015
Ryanair maintained thirty-one of their 2014 destinations for 2015 – Reus having finished in November 2014 and Shannon having transferred to Manchester in October 2014. There were twenty-one year-round, seven summer and three peak summer (Kos, Nimes and Rhodes) destinations. However their Oslo-Torp service did not operate during August.
Based aircraft for these services were generally three during the winter months and four during the summer months. There was also an extra fifth aircraft during August operating additional services to Alicante, Bergerac, Carcasonne, Dublin, Faro, Knock, Lanzarote, Limoges, Malaga, Malta, Porto, Rhodes, Szczecin, Tenerife South and Vilnius. However from January to March up to seven aircraft were based. From mid-November there were only three increasing to four in December
.
Services to the following destinations were flown by a mix of based and non-based aircraft.
Ryanair’s only 737-700 aircraft visited in November operating the two late evening rotations.
Alicante year round service 3 to 10 flights a week
Barcelona year round service 4 to 7 flights a week
Bergerac summer service from 29/03 to 04/11 2 to 3 flights a week
Bratislava year round service 3 to 4 flights a week
Carcassonne year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
Cork year round service 5 to 6 flights a week
Derry year round service 4 to 6 flights a week
Dublin year round service 14 to 28 flights a week
Faro year round service 2 to 8 flights a week
Fuertaventura year round service 1 to 2 flights a week
Ibiza summer service from 01/05 to 23/10 3 flights a week
Knock year round service 5 to 6 flights a week
Kos peak summer service from 01/07 to 31/08 1 flight a week
Krakow year round service 3 to 4 flights a week
Lanzarote year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
Las Palmas summer service from 29/03 to 28/10 2 flight a week
Limoges year round service 2 to 4 flights a week
Malaga year round service 3 to 9 flights a week
Malta year round service 2 flights a week
Nimes peak summer service from 01/06 to 28/09 2 flights a week
Oslo-Torp* year round service 2 to 3 flights a week * Oslo-Torp did not operate during August
Palma summer service from 29/03 to 03/11 2 to 6 flights a week
Pisa summer service from 29/03 to 02/11 2 flights a week
Porto summer service from 29/03 to 02/11 2 to 3 flights a week
Poznan year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
Rhodes peak summer service from 01/07 to 31/8 1 to 2 flights a week
Szczecin summer service from 29/3 to 01/11 2 to 3 flights a week
Tenerife South year round service 1 to 3 flights a week
Vilnius year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
Warsaw-Modlin year round service 3 to 5 flights a week
Wroclaw year round service 2 to 4 flights a week
VUELING 2015
The second new airline for LJLA for 2015 operated three rotations to Barcelona over the Christmas period prior to commencing a regular service for summer 2016. A320 aircraft were used.
Barcelona Christmas service from 27/12 to 30/12 3 flights only NEW SERVICE
WIZZ AIR 2015
Wizz Air continued their A320 year-round services to Gdansk and Warsaw-Chopin throughout the year with Gdansk carrying 53K passengers and Warsaw 64K. Overall load factors were in the high eighties for both routes.
The 24th April saw a new year-round service commence to Riga in Latvia with two flights per week. 20K passengers were carried in the year with an average load factor of about 80%.
Gdansk year round service 3 flights a week
Riga year round service from 24/04 2 flights a week NEW SERVICE
Warsaw year round service 2 to 3 flights a week
2015 CHARTER REPORT
INCLUSIVE TOURS
Just a single inclusive tour flight operated in 2015. This was run by Newmarket and departed to Verona on 20th May returning a week later and using a Small Planet A320. 157 people used this service.
Other inclusive tour holidays were available from Newmarket, Thomson and First Choice utilising the scheduled services of LJLA based airlines.
SANTAS LAPLAND
There were two ‘Santa’ charters operated this year. Rather early on 27th November a Small Planet A320 operated to Ivalo in Finland (175 passengers) returning on 29th whilst on 21st December there was a day trip to Pajala in Sweden (159 passengers) operated by an Enter Air B738
GENERAL CHARTERS
First private charter of the year was a Welcome Air D328 returning with skiers from Berne on 4th January. On 13th February a Maleth B733 carried out a crew training flight from Leeds to Dublin. The longest private charter of the year saw the Gain Jet B752 depart for St Thomas in the American Virgin Islands on 2nd April returning on 10th. A Cello Aviation B462 also flew a private charter on 14th April routing from Dublin to Glasgow.
A series of four flights for language students from Valladolid in northern Spain started on 24th April with further flights on 8th and 22nd May and 5th June. Alba Star B734 and Orbest Airlines A320 aircraft were used albeit with Envelop flight numbers.
Citiwings flew a number of sports charters in 2015 from and to the Isle of Man. On three Sundays in May, June and July their Van Air LET910 aircraft arrived in the morning and then returned in the evening. Later in the year they visited on three Saturdays in September and October with the aircraft day stopping at LJLA.
2015 was a busy year for pilgrims departing to Tarbes-Lourdes with seven rotations. The first on 27th May was by Transavia B738 returning on 1st June. On 24th July there were five outbound flights all returning on 31st. There were two flights by Denim Air F100, two by Alba star B734 and one by Cityjet RJ85. There was also a departure on 31st July with an Alba Star aircraft returning to Tarbes with pilgrims who returned home on 6th August.
BAe Warton was closed over the weekend in 2015 so their aircraft routed through LJLA on three occasions. Their 146 visited on 27th May and 19th December routing from Bari and then on to Warton two days later. Their E145 visited from Farnborough in July again leaving for Warton to days later.
A British Midland Regional E145 flew a private charter from Munich on 11th June and there were two charters to Farnborough in September using a Jota Aviation B462 and an Eastern E145. On 10th October a Europe Airpost B733 routed from and to Perpignan with visitors for the European Rugby Final in Manchester. On 12th October an Avanti Air F100 flew a private charter to Paris. WWE Superstars arrived on 8th November aboard an F100 of Avanti Air routing from Madrid and departing to Manchester on 9th. On 21st November an Air X B735 routed from Nice to Cairo the aircraft carrying ‘U2 Tour’ titles and finally a Welcome Air D328 flew a private charter to Sion on 27th December.
DOMESTIC FOOTBALL CHARTERS
During the second half of the 2014/15 domestic season Liverpool FC flew to away matches on seven occasions – Heathrow for Wimbledon by BMR E145 and then by Cello Aviation B462 to Teesside for Sunderland, Gatwick for Crystal Palace, Southampton, Cardiff for Swansea and Luton for Arsenal and Chelsea. They also arrived back with BMR from Heathrow after their Capital One Cup match against Chelsea in January. Visiting teams for LFC home matches all used BMR – West Ham and Spurs from Stansted, Newcastle and Crystal Palace from Gatwick. Chelsea arrived from Farnborough for their Capital One Cup match in January by BMR departing to Gatwick with Titan. Finally LFC returned by Titan B733 from Stansted after their FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea on 19th April.
Everton FC also flew to four away matches with BMR – Stansted for West Ham, Biggin Hill for Crystal Palace, Heathrow for Chelsea and Cardiff for Swansea. Visiting teams arrived with BMR on three occasions – West Ham and Spurs from Stansted and Newcastle. Southampton arrived by Air X B733 and Sunderland travelled from Newcastle by Eastern E145.
The first half of the 2015/16 season again saw LFC taking to the air with Cello Aviation arriving from Luton after their match against Arsenal and from Stansted against Spurs. For their Capital One Cup match they flew to Southampton in December arriving back from Bournemouth. They then flew to and from Newcastle, returned from Luton after their Watford match and to Teesside for their match against Sunderland. Visiting teams to Anfield arrived by VLM on three occasions – Bournemouth, Norwich and Bournemouth again for the Capital One Cup. West Ham arrived from Stansted with BMR as did Swansea from Cardiff whilst Southampton flew with Maleth Aero (B733) and Crystal Palace from Gatwick with Eastern.
Everton FC flew with BMR on eight occasions for away games –Southampton, Stansted for Spurs, Cardiff for Swansea, Luton for Arsenal, Bournemouth, Teesside for Middlesborough (Capital One Cup), Norwich and Newcastle. Visitors arriving for home matches were Watford from Luton by Denim Air, Chelsea from Farnborough by BMR, Norwich by VLM (Capital One Cup), Sunderland from Newcastle by Eastern and Crystal Palace from Gatwick by Eastern.
Visitors from Stavanger for a long weekend break while also taking in an LFC home match arrived by Wideroe Q400 in March to see Manchester United, May for QPR, September, October for Southampton and November for Crystal Palace. In November for the match against Swansea they arrived by Small Planet A320. For the QPR game there were also visitors from Oslo arriving by Jettime B733.
There were also two visits by non-Liverpool teams during the year. Swansea arrived by BMR on 3rd January from Cardiff to play Tranmere Rovers whilst Watford arrived by Denim Air from Luton on 25th August to play Preston North End.
EUROPA CUP FOOTBALL CHARTERS
For the 2014/15 season the Liverpool FC match against Besiktas FC provided two visiting aircraft arriving on 18th February, a Corendon B738 and a Turkish Airlines A330 both from Istanbul and returning there on 20th. For the return match LFC travelled to Istanbul aboard a Titan B752 on 25th February returning on 27th.
Everton FC travelled by Gain Jet B734 to Berne for their match against BSC Young Boys on 18th February. Supporters left on 19th aboard an A319 of Germania. Both aircraft returned on 25 February. BSC Young Boys arrived from Berne aboard an Denim Air F100 on 25th February with supporters arriving the following day by Skywork D328 and Edelweiss A320 before departing on 27th. Dynamo Kiev arrived on 11th March aboard an A320 of Windrose. For the return match EFC travelled to Kiev aboard a Titan B752 on 18th March with supporters leaving the following day on a Transavia B738. Both aircraft returned on 20th.
For the 2015/16 season LFC travelled to Bordeaux on 16th Setptember aboard a Titan B752 returning on 17th. The Sion team and supporters arrived on 30th September aboard a Saab 2000 of Darwin and a Q300 of InterSky before leaving on an InterSky ATR72 to Sion and the InterSky Q300 to Altenrheim. Kazan FC (capital of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan) arrived on 21st October aboard a Yamal Airlines A320 before departing to Krasnodar on 23rd. For the return match on LFC travelled on 3rd November by Gain Jet B752 returning on 6th. On 25th November Bordeaux FC travelled to LJLA aboard a Transavia France B738. Supporters arrived on the 26th by Volotea B717 (first visit of type) and HOP E145. All aircraft departed on 27th. The 9th December saw LFC depart to Geneva aboard a Titan B752 for their return match against Sion returning on 11th.
MISCELLANEOUS FOOTBALL CHARTERS
Everton FC travelled to Doha via Athens for mid-season training on 21 January aboard a Gain Jet B734 returning direct from there on 27th January.
Prior to the start of the 2015/16 domestic football season EFC travelled to Brize Norton on 11th July aboard a Cello B462 for a friendly against Swindon Town. On 24th July they used the same aircraft to visit Dundee for matches against Dundee and Hearts before returning on 29th.
Liverpool FC went further afield departing to Kuala Lumpur from Manchester (so avoiding a stop over in Dubai) and returning by Hi Fly A343 on 25th July. On 1st August thet flew to Helsinki by Gain Jet B752 retuning on 2nd and were in the air again later that day on a Cello B462 to Oxford for a friendly against Swindon Town returning on 3rd. An advance party from LFC travelled to Brize Norton on 1st by BMR E145. Finally Villareal departed by Air Nostrum CRJ200 to Castellon having played EFC on 2nd August at the end of their British tour.
FREIGHT CHARTERS
There were just fifteen freight charters in 2015 mostly carrying inbound car parts. Bin Air (Germany) visited on five occasions with their Metro aircraft from Gyor, Paderborn and Ostrava(x3). Flightline (Spain) visited on four occasions also with Metro aircraft from Paderborn, Ostrava(x2) and Bologna. A Rose Air (Bulgaria) Antonov 26 visited in July and August from Turin and Katowice whilst an Aviavilsa (Lithuania) ATR42 arrived from Milan Bergamo in July. These three visits may have been due to disruption to the cross-channel ferries. There were also single visits by Aero Nova (Spain) and Air Taxi Europe (Poland) Metro aircraft from Gothenburg and Lydd respectively.
Finally a TNT/Panair Bae146 flew from and to Shannon on 5th September with horses for the racing at Haydock Park
The total freight handled at LJLA in 2015 was 198 tonnes down 16% on 2014.
DIVERSIONS
There were 79 airliner diversions into LJLA in 2015. These were mostly weather related - snow, fog and cross winds but in the summer months airport congestion was a factor at both Manchester and Dublin. There was also one occasion of a blocked runway at Manchester.
Just under half of the diversions were Ryanair with fourteen each diverting from Manchester and Dublin. A further eight diverted from Leeds. FlyBe was in second place with fourteen –twelve from Manchester and two from Birmingham. These involved a variety of aircraft types and originating airports – Belfast City, IoM, Inverness, Edinburgh, Paris, Southampton, Bournemouth, Nantes Amsterdam and Aberdeen. Cat3 not being available would have been a factor here. EasyJet was next with thirteen diversions – eleven from Manchester and one each from Gatwick and IoM. There were also Manchester diversions by Loganair (Aberdeen and Glasgow), Monarch (Lanzarote), Icelandair (Keflavik), BMR (Aberdeen), Sun-Air (Billund x2), Thomas Cook (Dalaman) and Jet2 from Leeds (Alicante).
Our Wizz Air base attracted just two diversions during the year – a Doncaster bound flight from Warsaw and a Birmingham flight from Budapest.
Two days stand out as receiving a significant number of diversions. On 29th January the North West received a good covering of snow more so to the east of the region. LJLA received eleven diversions from Manchester including aircraft from Flybe (Q400), SAS (A320 and B738), Air Malta (A319), Ryanair (B738 x3), KLM (B738) and easyJet (A320 2x and A319 x1). On 18th March fog affected Manchester and diversions to LJLA included FlyBe (Q400 x3), Ryanair (B738), BMR (E145) and Sun-Air (D328).
Finally there were four diversions from Chester with Belugas visiting on 29th January from/to Toulouse, on 12th April from Toulouse and out to Chester on 13th and on 8th July from Hamburg departing to Chester on 9th. These were all due to cross winds. Also a BMR E145 diverted in on 2nd November due to visibility at Chester routing from Exeter (probably should have been Bristol!) before departing to Bristol late in the evening.
CHANGES AROUND THE AIRPORT
LIVERPOOL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
The Airport was awarded the accolade ‘City Business of the Year’ at a ceremony in Sefton Park’s Palm House in July. Later in the year it received a national Bronze Award for its customer service training programme.
DEVELOPMENTS INSIDE THE TERMINAL
During winter 2014/15 a ‘Commercial Development Plan’ involving an investment of £1m in retail infrastructure was carried out, with some relocation of existing units and construction of others to make the ‘retail experience’ of passing through the airport easier and more enjoyable. Further investment during the winter of 2015/16 looked to further improve the customer experience of the airport, replacing the remaining section of ‘Liverpool 08’ carpeting and a rolling programme of updating and renewing all passenger toilet facilities.
PASSENGER ‘LANDMARK’ PASSED
During August EasyJet passed a ‘landmark’ total of 35 million passengers carried through Liverpool Airport since they started operations from here in 1997 to just Amsterdam and Nice. Ryanair celebrated 10 years of having a base at Liverpool, with 4 aircraft overnight at Liverpool from 31st March 2005, although they had been operating into Liverpool since May 1988.
“HOLIDAY AIRPORT”
A ‘fly-on-the-wall’ documentary following staff and passengers around the airport was filmed over a 3 month period by Bristol based Plimsoll Productions. The 7 episode series, with a voice-over by Keith Chegwin, was broadcast by Channel 5 commencing mid July, however after only a few episodes the programme was withdrawn by Channel 5.
RUNWAY END SAFETY AREA
The Airport made it known that once a legal hurdle over the closure of Dungeon Lane and the reopening of Bailey’s Lane was cleared, that the fence around the ‘RESA’ would be constructed during the winter of 2015/16, which would totally seal-off public access across the 27 threshold. With hindsight we now know this process took rather longer to sort out and the announcement was premature as the fence was not constructed until summer 2020.
EMERGENCY EXERCISE
The Annual exercise to ensure smooth coordination between the emergency crews in the event of a major aircraft incident at the Airport took place on 5th February. The scenario being that a passenger airliner had undershoot a landing at the 27 end, effectively landing in the area that would become the RESA.
