Please find below a brief history of Liverpool Airport which we hope that you will find useful. If you wish to make a booking then please click on the appropriate link on your left. Alternatively you can call our office, where one of our helpful staff will only be happy to help.
Speke (Later named John Lennon Airport) is one of the UK's oldest operational airports. At the beginning of World War One Hooton park was requisitioned for army training purposes, The first unit stationed at the new aerodrome was a Royal Flying Corps (pilot training unit) who remained until disbanded in 1919.
In 1927, a local businessman, George Dawson, had acquired most of the estate with the aim of turning Hooton Park into a major airport for the North of England. The Liverpool and District Aero Club was formed with a grant from the Air Ministry and in 1930, it was designated the official airport for Liverpool and commercial services were run there until July 1933, when Speke on the opposite bank of the River Mersey, achieved airport status.
Speke Airport operated from a converted farmhouse, which acted both as terminal building and, with the assistance of an improvised superstructure added to an attic window- as control tower. This control tower remained operational until the present tower was completed in 1937, a new terminal building in 1939 followed this.
In 1966 a new runway was formally opened by the Duke of Edinburgh enabling 24 hour operations and 1986 saw the opening of a modern passenger terminal adjacent to the runway on the southern airfield site. (The former terminal building is now a hotel).
The next major change was in 1990 when ownership of Speke Airport changed from public sector control to the private sector with British Aerospace acquiring a 76% majority shareholding. In 2001, Speke Airport was renamed Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Today Liverpool John Lennon Airport is a wholly owned subsidiary of Peel Holdings plc, the NorthWest based property company. Peel acquired a 76% majority shareholding in 1997 from British Aerospace with the remaining shares held by the five Merseyside local authorities. On 9 May 2001 Peel Airports (Liverpool) Limited acquired the remaining 24% shareholding.