When Easyjet offered Liverpool-Luton, it was popular, in fact I used it quite a bit and couldnt always get on, sometimes also fares were quite high (as the flight was nearly full) however I think many people from the Northwest don’t think of Luton as a London airport, and im not sure if many business travellers liked it. The train from Luton Airport Parkway in the mornings is packed, after getting up at the crack of dawn to catch an 0600 from Liverpool, you really want a more relaxing transfer into central London. I used the 757 Greenline bus a few times which was quite comfortable, but then you are on the M1 !

VLM offers a much better service to London from Liverpool now, and their on-time performance is good, Easyjets on LPL-LTN was debatable. I also remember they were moaning about landing charge increases at Luton at the time.

Its a shame that BMI use terminal one for their long haul routes. I flew to the U.S with them in September and thought they were very good, I guess there is not enough check-in room at term 3 for them.

to kinda follow on from this thread……..I have been away for a week. Flew Ryanair LPL-DUB on a B737-200, plane was full and on time, nothing really to moan about, it was an old aircraft and a bit tatty but it got me there on time with no hassle, and the ticket for two one way was just under £25.00 including tax ! Next leg was Aer Arran Dublin to Kerry on a late 22.20 departure on an ATR 72. Plane also full, service nothing special to get regional airline of the year, certainly I would say not up to VLM standards. Anyway all ok and saved a lengthy drive to County Kerry from Dublin, I think they must be doing very well to have such a well supported flight and I was impressed that you can get a regional airlink from the Capital so late at night. Try getting a plane that late out of LHR to MAN !

Last flight was BMI Baby from Cork to the lovely Manchester Terminal one. Plane was parked a fair trot from the terminal, just as well it wasnt raining. The dirty 737 was also pretty much full and left on time, although we aborted the take off as some warning light came on. The captain explained it wasnt a problem so we back-tracked up the runway and left straight away.

Got back to Manchester Term one a bit early and got bags quick, there seemed to be a problem with a Mytravel flight from Alicante as a lot of people were hanging around for luggage or filling in reports for lost items, so we were lucky.

Walked out of terminal and hung around near the BP garage, seems the easiest place to get collected from as you cant get near the building.

My favourite terminal at Manchester is 3, which is pretty good, then 2 then lastly 1. At terminal one you seem to go upstairs then downstairs for no apparent reason, and this time round the escalators were not working, so not too good if you are bad on your legs.

Having said all that Cork Airport is horrid, far too small and really showing its age. They are building a new one but I cant see it being ready for next year when Cork is European Capital of Culture.

Personally, i don’t like terminal one at all, particularly arrivals, it so depressing and getting picked up once your out of the building is a nightmare.

Im actually flying to Ireland tomorrow LPL-DUB, then DUB-KIR, then ORK-MAN with bmi baby, so terminal one for me at 11pm on next Sunday night…..not fun !

They have stopped the service, as I tried to book someone from our company to travel from London to meet me in Cardiff. couldnt get it booked on-line and didnt know why . I phoned them and they confirmed route was stopping end of September.

Shame really.

Wide bodies are still fairly fare at Liverpool. Last summer a MyTravel DC-10 was operating quite often. You do get some interesting aircraft when there is a big football match happening, this can bring in large aircarft, seen Corseair 747 before & Martinair DC-10.