Originally Posted by
BACsuperVC10
Quite a depressing opinion. The Northwest is quite large enough to support two airports, and doesn't have excellent surface links, and probably never will. Liverpool has reported growth since 2015, apart from Covid, I see no reason why that won't continue.
As you know Aer Lingus was barred from flying from Liverpool for many years, Ryanair became the allocated carrier by the Irish Government, they have always been seen off by Ryanair ever since. Wizzair continues to add services now with 13 routes, Ryanair added several new routes recently, as did Easyjet.
Freight has increased of late too with 34 flights from China, over 30 of those were wide bodies.
Bristol is not really a good comparison, they have no large airport on their doorsteps. If you compare with LBA or NCL,, Liverpool is doing OK, and well done to the airports Management and Lufthansa for bringing us Frankfurt.
I think Rutan provides a fair assessment of the situation. Clearly LPL has a strong local market for primarily leisure oriented routes, with some historically strong links across the Irish Sea also being served. However, not too far down the motorway is MAN, currently undergoing a vast expansion. MAN has the critical mass, there is no way LPL will ever effectively compete against that. Most passengers in Merseyside won’t bat an eyelid at flying from Manchester, regardless of any local animosity.
The M62 corridor can only support one major airport.