Liverpool John Lennon Airport has taken a little pop at their rivals here in Manchester after picking up another big nod in the travel industry.
Although Liverpool’s airport may not be as big and busy as Manchester’s, the main Merseyside terminal was named as the best in the UK according to Which? for 2024, and it’s by no means the first time they’ve picked up the accolade.
Having picked up the same award in 2023 and being rated highly by many other bodies for many years, it’s yet another thing for Scousers to be very proud of in their city and, in fairness, Manchester Airport hasn’t had a great week. As a result, the ever-modest Liverpudlians were gracious in their victory…
Just kidding, they wasted no time in putting together a quick little celebratory poster on their socials that’s turned out to be a bit of a meme at Manchester Airport’s expense.
Touché, John Lennon – not the actual one, obviously.
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Yes, the historic rivalry between Manchester is fiercely fought as it is long-standing. As they rightly put it, they have The Beatles, we have Oasis; they have Liverpool and Everton, we have City and United, but when it comes to airport experiences, they have the clear edge.
Having become the UK’s only airport with a five-star rating from the world’s leading air travel intelligence back in 2019, Liverpool John Lennon has maintained a sterling reputation ever since and the most recent independent survey of passengers found that they top satisfaction levels across the board.
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Which? polled over 4,000 customers, with 83% of them labelling it a “first-class experience from start to finish” and also giving them the best rating for bag drop, passport control, baggage reclaim, staffing, toilets and more. The single terminal also boasts just an 11-minute waiting time to get through security.
Conversely, they named Manchester Airport the worst in the UK for 2023 and still in the top 10 UK for the longest waiting times, with the majority of Manc flyers in agreement that terminals one and three are still in need of significant updating after around £440 million was invested in T2 last year.
So yeah, we can still strongly argue the case that we have the music, food, football and plenty of other things here in Manchester, but it’s fair to say that Liverpool John Lennon is currently the superior place to fly from.
Chester Zoo named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors
Emily Sergeant
Congratulations are in order, yet again, for Chester Zoo… as this time it’s been named one of England’s most popular attractions.
Merely months after being named the UK’s best zoo for the second year running, thanks to receiving more than 11,000 ‘excellent’ reviews from TripAdvisor, Chester Zoo has now got itself another prestigious title, as a major VisitEngland (VE) report has ranked it the third most-visited ‘paid for’ attraction in England – and the most visited outside of London.
The national tourist board for England gathered information from a total of 1,373 attractions across the country, and ranked the UK’s biggest charity zoo as the third overall in terms of popularity, with a whopping 1.9 million visitors in 2024 alone.
The Tower of London took top spot with 2.9 million visitors, while the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew was second place with 2.3 million visitors.
When it comes to free attractions, on the other hand, it wad the British Museum that claimed the top spot with 6.5 million visitors, while the Natural History Museum (5.9 million visitors) took second place, and the Tate Modern (4.6 million visitors) got third.
So as you can see, the south and London in particular is a pretty dominating force in England’s tourism industry – which is why it’s even more impressive to see Chester Zoo ranked so highly.
The new VE title also comes after the zoo was recently given £4 million of lottery funding to help ‘transform’ the local environment and restore wildlife habitats across the Cheshire and wider North West region.
Not only that, but if course follows Chester Zoo’s unveiling of its new immersive experience named Heart of Africa, which is the the largest zoo habitat ever created in the UK and is home to 57 iconic African species.
Chester Zoo has been named one of England’s most popular tourist attractions with 1.9m visitors / Credit: Chester Zoo
“As a major international wildlife charity, everything we do is focused on supporting global conservation,” commented Chester Zoo’s Commercial Director, Dom Strange.
“Whether it’s caring for highly-threatened animals and plants, making scientific discoveries, influencing Government environmental policies, impacting the National Curriculum to better connect young people with nature, or our conservation efforts in around 20 countries, we’re fully committed to protecting endangered species for the future.
“But none of this would be possible without our visitors.
“Every person who comes to the zoo for a fun and inspiring day out is helping to fund our vital work, so we want to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us and helped us to rank so highly in VisitEngland’s latest report.”
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Travel & Tourism
Ryanair introduces immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers
Emily Sergeant
Ryanair is majorly clamping-down on passenger conduct by introducing a new immediate fining system.
In a bid to get onboard conduct to an acceptable level, Europe’s largest budget airline has today confirmed (12 June) that it has introduced a £500 fine for disruptive passengers whose unruly behaviour results in them being offloaded from the aircraft.
The airline – which prides itself on being one of the most ‘punctual’ in the continent – says passengers expect to travel in a ‘comfortable and stress-free environment’ that’s free from ‘unnecessary disruption’ caused by a tiny number of people travelling onboard the aircraft at the same time as them.
Ryanair has introduced immediate £500 fines for ‘unruly’ passengers / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
While it’s no secret that passenger disruption is a problem that’s increasingly affecting the airline industry as a whole, Ryanair says it’s ‘committed’ to tackling unruly behaviour for the benefit of its passengers and crew.
The company intends to continue to pursue disruptive passengers for civil damages, but at a minimum, they will now be issued with a £500 fine immediately.
“It is unacceptable that passengers are made suffer unnecessary disruption because of one unruly passenger’s behaviour,” a Ryanair spokesperson commented as the fines were announced today.
The airline says it’s committed to tackling this for the benefit of its passengers and crew / Credit: Pxhere
“To help ensure that our passengers and crew travel in a comfortable and stress-free environment, without unnecessary disruption caused by a tiny number of unruly passengers, we have introduced a £500 fine, which will be issued to any passengers offloaded from aircraft as a result of their misconduct.
“While these are isolated events which happen across all airlines, disruptive behaviour in such a confined shared space is unacceptable.
Danny Jones -
28th June 2024 
