Liverpool Airport Guide: From Speke Hall to John Lennon
Liverpool Airport, named after John Lennon, handles 5.6 million passengers a year. Discover its Mersey side runway, easyJet base, routes and spotting.
By The Aviation Hub
7 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Liverpool Airport, officially Liverpool John Lennon Airport, sits on the north bank of the Mersey estuary at Speke, roughly 7 miles (11 km) south east of the city centre. It handles around 5.6 million passengers a year, almost all of them on short haul leisure and low cost flights, and it competes directly with the much larger Manchester Airport 30 miles to the east. The field is one of the oldest in Britain still in commercial use, and its 1930s terminal survives as a hotel.
Liverpool Airport at a Glance
Liverpool Airport uses the IATA code LPL and the ICAO code EGGP. It lies at just 24 m (80 ft) above sea level on reclaimed land beside the river and has a single asphalt runway, 09/27. There is one passenger terminal, a plain building with walk out boarding and no jet bridges, which keeps costs low and turnarounds quick.
Traffic reached about 5.6 million passengers in 2025, up from roughly 5.1 million the year before. easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com all base aircraft here, with Aer Lingus, Loganair and Wizz Air making up the rest of the schedule. Since October 2025 the airport has been owned by the infrastructure investor Ancala Partners, with Liverpool City Council holding a small stake. Live flight details are on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Speke
Flying at Speke began in 1930, when Imperial Airways ran a scheduled service from fields that had been part of the Speke Hall estate. The airport opened formally on 1 July 1933 as Liverpool (Speke) Airport, and by the end of the decade it had gained a striking art deco terminal, control tower and hangars. In the Second World War the site became RAF Speke, with Rootes building Blenheim and Halifax bombers and Lockheed assembling imported American aircraft next door.
Post war growth was slow, and the original airfield proved too small. A new runway, today’s 09/27, opened on reclaimed land to the south in 1966, and the terminal followed it across the site in 1986. The original terminal lay derelict for years before reopening as a hotel in 2001. It is now a Crowne Plaza and retains the old tower.
The real transformation came with easyJet, which arrived in 1997 and turned a sleepy regional field into a low cost base. Traffic passed 5 million within a decade. In 2001 the airport was renamed after John Lennon, 21 years after his death, with a Yellow Submarine sculpture at the entrance and the lyric “Above us only sky” on the roof.
Runways at Liverpool Airport
The single runway, 09/27, measures 2,285 m (7,497 ft) and is 46 m wide with an asphalt surface. It runs east to west along the Mersey shore, so aircraft on 27 approach over the estuary and the Runcorn bridges, while departures from 09 climb out over the river. Both ends have instrument landing systems, and 27 is the preferred direction because of the prevailing westerlies.
The runway is comfortably long enough for the Boeing 737-800s and Airbus A320neos that make up almost all traffic, and it has handled the occasional wide body, including Antonov freighters and diversions from Manchester. It is not long enough for fully loaded long haul departures to North America, which is why Flyglobespan’s transatlantic attempt in 2007 struggled and why an extension features in the airport’s expansion plans. The field was built on the former Oglet shore and the land is low, so fog from the river is an occasional nuisance.
Terminals and Airlines
Liverpool Airport has one terminal, extended several times since 1986, with departures upstairs and arrivals downstairs. There are no jet bridges and no travelators, so passengers walk across the apron to their aircraft, which suits the airport’s low cost model. Security and the departure lounge were enlarged in the 2010s, and the building copes well with its current traffic.
easyJet is the largest operator with a sizeable base of Airbus A320 family aircraft. Ryanair bases Boeing 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s, while Jet2.com has grown quickly since arriving in 2023 with 737-800s on package holiday routes. Aer Lingus serves Dublin, Loganair links the Isle of Man, and Wizz Air flies to central and eastern Europe. No full service network carriers operate here, so alliance membership plays no part in the terminal layout.
Routes and Destinations
Dublin is the busiest route from Liverpool Airport, with around 567,000 passengers in 2025 across Ryanair and Aer Lingus. Belfast International and the Isle of Man are the other major domestic and Irish Sea links, the latter a Loganair service that connects the island with the north west. Amsterdam is the main business route, flown by easyJet.
Spain dominates the international picture. Alicante, Malaga, Tenerife South, Palma de Mallorca and Lanzarote all rank among the top ten routes, with Faro in Portugal alongside them. Greece, Turkey and Egypt fill out the summer schedule, and Jet2.com has brought a strong holiday market. Winter is markedly quieter, though the Canary Islands and Alpine ski routes keep the Ryanair and easyJet bases busy. The longest regular routes reach Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, and there is no scheduled long haul.
Getting to and from Liverpool Airport
There is no station at Liverpool Airport itself. Liverpool South Parkway, about 3 miles (5 km) away, is the nearest intercity station and links to Lime Street, Manchester and the West Coast Main Line, with buses connecting it to the terminal. Hunts Cross on the Merseyrail network is slightly closer. A train and bus combination from the city costs a few pounds and takes 30 to 40 minutes.
Arriva’s 500 express bus runs directly between the terminal and the city centre every 30 minutes, taking around 35 minutes, and it is the cheapest direct option. By road the airport is reached from the A561 Speke Boulevard, with the M57 and Knowsley Expressway to the north and the Mersey Gateway bridge to the south. A taxi to the city centre costs about £20 to £25 and takes 25 minutes. Car parking ranges from short stay by the terminal to pre booked long stay fields a shuttle ride away.
Spotting and Photography
The classic spot at Liverpool Airport is the Crowne Plaza, the old terminal, whose grounds and the adjacent Speke Hall estate overlook the airfield from the north. Dungeon Lane and the coastal path along the Oglet shore run close to the runway 27 threshold on the Mersey side and give excellent views of arrivals from the river, with the Runcorn bridges in the background. The Speke and Garston coastal reserve offers a longer walk with views of departures.
Afternoon light suits photographs of aircraft on 27, with the sun behind you on the shore path. Mornings favour the 09 end near the Estuary business park. Traffic is mostly A320s and 737s, but Loganair ATRs and occasional cargo and diversion visitors add interest. The shore path is a public right of way but the fence is airport property, so keep your distance and do not climb on anything. Police and airport staff are used to spotters and rarely object to sensible behaviour.
What Comes Next
The airport has published a master plan worth around £100 million that could include a runway extension to open up long haul, a new cargo area, an additional taxiway, three new terminal piers, more parking and hotels and a new access road. A nature reserve on the Oglet shore is offered as mitigation. These remain proposals, and the land on the shore is contested, so progress will depend on planning consent and the new owners’ appetite.
In the shorter term the bases of easyJet, Ryanair and Jet2.com should keep traffic rising towards 6 million, and a direct public transport link to the terminal is the single most useful improvement on the table. Liverpool Airport will remain a low cost leisure field in Manchester’s shadow, but a well run and growing one. Compare it with other British airports on our Airports of the World map.
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