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Coordinates: 53°20′01″N 002°50′59″W / 53.33361, -2.84972

Liverpool John Lennon Airport Liverpool Airport
IATA: LPL – ICAO: EGGP
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Liverpool Airport plc
Serves		Liverpool
Location		Speke
Elevation AMSL		80 ft / 24 m
Website		liverpooljohnlennonairport.com
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	ft	m
09/27	7,500	2,286	Asphalt
Source: UK AIP at NATS

Liverpool John Lennon Airport (IATA: LPL, ICAO: EGGP) is an airport serving the English city of Liverpool. Formerly known as Speke Airport and RAF Speke, the airport is located adjacent to the estuary of the River Mersey some 7.5 miles (12 km) south-east of the centre of Liverpool.

In recent years it has been one of Europe's fastest growing airports, having increased its annual passenger numbers from 875,000 in 1998 to 4.96 million in 2006. The growth rate was 12.6% in 2006, less than the 31.5% of 2005. 500,000 passengers were handled in one month, for the first time, during May 2007.

Liverpool Airport has a CAA Public Use Aerodrome Licence (Number P735) that allows flights for the public transport of passengers and for flying instruction.

Contents 1 History 2 Statistics 3 Runway upgrades 4 Airlines and destinations 4.1 Scheduled airlines 4.2 Charter airlines 4.3 Cargo airlines 4.4 Airlines and routes previously serviced at Liverpool 5 Access 6 Bibliography 7 References 8 External links

Speke Airport, as the airport was originally known, started scheduled flights in 1930 (by Imperial Airways via Barton Airport, Manchester, to Croydon Airport, London. However, it was 'officially' opened in the summer of 1933. In the late 1930s, as air traffic from Liverpool was beginning to 'take off' with increasing demand for Irish Sea crossings, a distinctive passenger terminal, control tower and two large aircraft hangars were built.

During World War II, the airport was taken over by the Royal Air Force and known as RAF Speke. Rootes Motors built many bombers here, including Bristol Blenheims and 1070 Handley Page Halifaxes. Lockheeds assembled many types including Hudsons and Mustangs, that had been shipped from the USA to Liverpool Docks. Speke was witness to what is thought to be the fastest air to air combat "kill" in the Battle of Britain and possibly of all time. Squadron Leader Denys Gillam took off in his Hawker Hurricane from Speke to be confronted by a Junkers 88 passing across him. As his undercarriage was still retracting he shot the Junkers down. The moment has been caught in a painting by Robert Taylor called "Fastest Victory".

In 1966, a new 7500-foot runway was opened on a new site to the east of the existing airfield. It enabled the airport to be open for business around the clock and is in use to this day. Control of the airport transferred to Merseyside County Council from Liverpool Corporation in the mid 1970s and 10 years later to the five Merseyside councils following the abolition of Merseyside County Council. A new modern passenger terminal, adjacent to the runway on the southern airfield site, opened in 1986, and this was followed by the closure of the original 1930s building.^[1]

The original terminal building from the 1930s, famously seen on early television footage with its terraces packed with Beatles fans, was left derelict for over a decade after being replaced in 1986. However it has recently been renovated and adapted to become the Marriott Liverpool South Hotel, preserving its Grade II listed art deco style. ^[2]

In 1990 ownership of the airport was privatised, with British Aerospace taking a 76% shareholding in the new company. Subsequently the airport has become a wholly owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings Ltd. In 2000, work on a £42.5 million modern passenger terminal began, tripling the its size and passenger capacity, and this development was completed in 2002. There have since been further extensions. The airport's strategy is to cater largely for 'low cost' operators, and consequently the terminal and gate layout requires passengers to walk outside to and from passenger aircraft.

2002 saw the airport being renamed in honour of John Lennon, a founding member of the well-known Liverpudlian band The Beatles, twenty-two years after Lennon's death. A 7-foot tall bronze statue of the local icon stands overlooking the check-in hall. On the roof is painted the airport's motto, a line from Lennon's song "Imagine": "Above us, only sky".

In 2005 the Yellow Submarine, a large-scale work of art that, was installed on a traffic island at the entrance to the airport.

Number of Passengers [3] Number of Movements [4] 1997 689,468 28,521 1998 873,172 28,585 1999 1,304,959 27,064 2000 1,982,711 32,442 2001 2,253,398 30,510 2002 2,835,871 32,764 2003 3,177,009 38,760 2004 3,353,350 39,736 2005 4,411,243 49,341 2006 4,963,886 47,792 Source: UK Civil Aviation Authority [1]

September 2006 saw the start of the reconstruction of Liverpool's new, southern, runway. The runway was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1966 and this is the first time the runway has been reconstructed (as opposed to resurfaced). In addition to runway and shoulder work is the upgrade of the 40 year old airfield group lighting with a new system, which will upgrade the runway to ILS Category III standards. Work is also underway on the taxiways, which are being strengthened and resurfaced. Taxiway Delta (the 09 loop) has been slightly reconfigured, while the holding point G is now active again.

The airport handles both scheduled and charter airline flights. It is currently served by the following airlines:

• easyJet (Alicante, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel/Mulhouse, Belfast, Berlin-Schönefeld, Cologne/Bonn [ends 6 January], Faro, Geneva, Ibiza, Innsbruck [begins 8 January], Jersey [begins 31 March], Krakow, Lisbon, Mahon, Madrid, Malaga, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
• EuroManx (Isle of Man)
• Flybe (Isle of Man [begins 30 March])
• Ryanair (Alghero, Alicante, Bergerac, Belfast-City, Budapest, Bydgoszcz, Carcassonne, Cork, Derry, Dublin, Friedrichshafen, Fuerteventura, Gerona, Granada, Grenoble, Kaunas, Krakow, Limoges, Łódź, Madrid, Malaga [begins 1 April], Milan-Bergamo, Murcia, Nantes [begins 1 April], Nîmes, Oslo-Torp, Palma de Mallorca, Pisa, Porto, Poznan, Reus, Riga, Rome-Ciampino, Salzburg, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Shannon, Stockholm-Skavsta, Tenerife South, Valencia, Venice-Treviso, Wroclaw)
• Wizz Air (Bucharest-Băneasa, Gdansk, Katowice, Warsaw)

• First Choice Airways [seasonal] Charter Flights (Alicante, Corfu, Dalaman, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife-South)
• MyTravel Airways [seasonal] Charter Flights (Alicante, Las Palmas, Palma de Mallorca, Mahon, Reina Sofia,Rhodes, Reus)
• Thomsonfly Charter flights [seasonal](Alicante, Corfu, Faro, Ibiza, Mahon, Tenerife-South)

The cargo airline area is served by:

• TNT Airways

• Aer Arann (Isle of Man,Galway)
• Aer Lingus (Dublin)
• Air Écosse
• Air Malta (Malta)
• Air Wales (Aberdeen, Cardiff, Plymouth)
• Aviogenex (Pula)
• British Midland Airways (London Heathrow, Jersey)
• Cambrian Airways UK and European routes
• Eastern Airways
• Emerald Airways (Isle of Man)
• Flybe (Belfast City, Edinburgh, Exeter, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Jersey, Southampton)
• Flyglobespan (Tenerife South, Toronto Hamilton, New York-JFK)
• Fordair (London Stansted)
• Genair (Amsterdam, London Gatwick)
• JAT Yugoslav Airlines (Pula)
• Jersey European Airways
• Manx Airlines (Belfast City, Isle of Man)
• Monarch Airlines
• Onur Air (Dalaman)
• Ryanair (Aberdeen, Charleroi, Kerry, Inverness,Lisbon, Tampere, Santander,Verona)
• TAP Air Portugal (Faro)
• VLM Airlines (Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Jersey, London City, Luxembourg, Rotterdam)
• Wizzair (Budapest, Kaunas)

By road, the airport is readily accessible by the M53, M56,M57 and M62 motorways. The Knowsley Expressway links Knowsley, Prescot and Huyton to Speke Boulevard for fast access.

Parking facilities at the airport have not kept pace with demand, and whilst new capacity is now under construction, parking charges have been sharply increased, despite non-provision of courtesy transport, to equate demand with supply.^{[citation needed]}

The airport does not have its own railway station. The nearest station is at Liverpool South Parkway, from which there are regular bus shuttle services to the airport. The station provides frequent rail services to central Liverpool, Crosby, Hunts Cross and Southport, on the suburban Merseyrail network, together with longer distance direct links to Manchester and Birmingham on the National Rail network.

There are also regular bus services linking the airport with both Liverpool and Manchester city centres [2]. Taxi services are provided at the airport though this has led to tension between taxi drivers and airport authorities as airport authorities now request that taxi drivers pay them £2,500 a year [3].

• Liverpool Airport - an Illustrated History. Phil Butler. Tempus Publishing, Stroud, 2004. ISBN 0-7524-3168-4.

• Liverpool John Lennon Airport
• Liverpool John Lennon Airport Consultative Committee
• Information about Liverpool John Lennon Airport
• Friends of Liverpool Airport
• Airport information for EGGP at World Aero Data
• Airport information for EGGP at Great Circle Mapper
• Current weather for EGGP at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for LPL at Aviation Safety Network

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