Ryanair’s Birthday Flights

By BEN SCHOFIELD

RYANAIR marked 20 years of flying from Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) yesterday.

The low-cost airline claimed to have flown more than 9m passengers since first opening a route to Dublin in 1988.

It now flies 2.5m passengers a year to 38 destinations, which represents a 10-fold increase in passengers in 10 years.

Managers predict more than 2m passengers will fly with the carrier to and from Liverpool in 2008, generating a tourism spend of over pounds 100m in Merseyside.

To mark the occasion, Ryanair are offering 100,000 pounds 5 one- way tickets from JLA until midnight tomorrow.

Bridget Dowling, Ryanair’s UK sales and marketing manager, said: "Since 1988, over 9m passengers in Liverpool have chosen Ryanair’s lowest fares and number one punctuality.

"Passengers prefer Ryanair because only Ryanair guarantees the lowest fares and guarantees no fuel surcharges ever."

Katie Smorthit, marketing manager for Peel Airports Group, said: "Ryanair were one of the pioneers of low-cost travel and certainly the first to offer such flights from Liverpool.

"The airport is unrecognisable from what it was like just ten years ago, let alone 20 years ago, and there is no doubt that Ryanair’s decision to make Liverpool one of its key European bases just three years ago has helped to further transform the airport in recent years."

benschofield@dailypost.co.uk

(c) 2008 Daily Post; Liverpool. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.