Ryanairs 300 million UK passenger milestone celebrated at JLA

Michael Cawley, Ryanair’s Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Operating Officer was on hand at Liverpool John Lennon Airport today to help celebrate reaching the airline’s latest passenger milestone. Since commencing operations in 1985, Ryanair have now carried 300 million passengers on flights from and to the UK and in the space of less than 30 years have grown to be the world’s favourite airline, as confirmed by IATA.

Liverpool has a long standing relationship with Ryanair and was one of the first airports in the UK to be served by the Irish low cost airline, who commenced a service to Dublin from the Airport in May 1988. In the 25 years Ryanair have been operating from JLA, they have carried 20 million passengers on services from and to Liverpool.

In their first year of operation here, they carried just over 20,000 passengers on their flights to and from Liverpool. Last year, Ryanair carried almost 1.8 million passengers on flights between Liverpool and over 30 destinations in Ireland and across Europe.

Numbers of staff at any airport are dependent upon passenger throughput and the high passenger volumes by Ryanair have helped to create and sustain significant levels of employment across a diverse range of departments and companies at Liverpool. In addition, there are many indirect jobs created too.

Matthew Thomas, CEO at Liverpool John Lennon Airport commented, “We’re naturally delighted that this latest Ryanair milestone has been celebrated here at Liverpool, having worked closely with them over the past 25 years and having been a part of their amazing growth and success story.”

Ryanair have helped to make air travel affordable for millions of UK passengers and have been a key factor in the growth and expansion of Liverpool John Lennon Airport. The Liverpool City Region has benefited too, through increased overseas visitor numbers and job creation both here at the airport and across the region.