Liverpool John Lennon Airport can claim to be the best in the North of England, after being awarded a five-star rating by the Official Airline Guide (OAG).
According to the OAG’s ‘On-time Performance Star Ratings’, 86.7% of flights to and from JLA ran on time between October 2016 and September 2017 – a period in which some 35,392 journeys took place.
For the purposes of the report, on-time was defined as “departures and arrivals that take place strictly less than 15 minutes after scheduled departure or arrival times”.
JLA was ranked 33rd in the world, with Birmingham and Cardiff being the only others in the UK rated higher on the list.
Colin Swaine, Operations Director at LJLA, told JMU Journalism: “A lot of the delays we encounter at Liverpool are late inbound aircraft. We can turn planes around quickly, but inevitably if they’re late coming in, then they’re going to be late going out.
“We can’t do a lot about those late inbound flights, but what we can do is focus on improving the speed that we actually turn the aircraft around again.
“There’s always room for improvement and we’re working with the airlines and our partners to improve on our score for the next year.”
Twitter: @NaomiBu1234
What a fab airport @LPL_Airport is, 100% better than Manchester
— Naomi ? (@NaomiBu1234) October 29, 2017
This latest accolade comes after Liverpool was voted the UK’s Friendliest Airport by the Cheapflights.co.uk website, and it received a high recommendation from the National Transport Awards.
John Grant, a Senior Analyst at OAG, said: “With the aviation industry going through a turbulent time, there is a lot for the UK airports to be proud of in terms of the speed at which they’re able to get flights on and off the ground.
“The key for the next 12 months is consistency, as we’ll inevitably see the number of flights in and out of the UK increasing.”
John Lennon Airport’s passenger numbers have been growing year on year, and in 2016, it saw passenger numbers increase by 11% to over 4.8 million – its highest level in five years.
YouTube: Liverpool John Lennon Airport
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqPYKx_rBwQ