Liverpool Airport is working ‘Eight Days a Week’ to boost passenger numbers as Martyn Cartledge discovered.
One of the oldest airports in Britain is enjoying a new lease of life, thanks to its success in courting the low-cost market. The airport at Liverpool, in the northwest of England, has enjoyed considerable expansion in the last two decades and now has plans to capitalise on that growth with a development plan covering the next 30 years.
The airport at Speke, seven miles southeast of the city centre and next to the River Mersey, officially opened on July 1, 1933, although commercial aviation began in early 1930 when Imperial Airways started an experimental service. An Armstrong Whitworth Argosy connected Croydon to Liverpool, via Birmingham and Manchester.
During World War Two, Blenheim and Halifax aircraft were built at Speke, and Lockheed Hudsons, delivered by sea from the USA, were reassembled there.
Post-war, the airport expanded and extended its reach. On May 7, 1966, the 09/27 runway in use today was first opened (as 10/28). Twenty years later the original terminal – often mooted for redevelopment – was finally replaced by a new building on land to the south, much closer to the runway, thereby shortening taxi times.
