The airport said it has been a “challenging extended period”
The long-stay car park at Liverpool John Lennon Airport on Thursday morning (January 9)(Image: Submitted)
A passenger described the car park at Liverpool John Lennon Airport as “lethal” after snow and icy weather hit Merseyside. Today is the sixth day in a row the region has been hit with a weather warning – with a yellow warning in place for snow and ice.
It has heavily affected transport, with services across the Merseyrail network cancelled this morning. Liverpool John Lennon Airport has also been impacted, with flights subject to cancellations and significant delays in recent days, as well as delays to the de-icing process on Tuesday, January 7.
A photograph shared with the ECHO at around 5.30am today, Thursday January 9, showed the Speke airport’s long-stay car park coated by snow and ice, with walkways and roads also covered. A passenger told the ECHO: “I was flying out from here this morning to Lanzarote. We drove from Manchester and parked up in the long-stay car park and it’s absolutely lethal.
“It’s not been gritted and the snow hasn’t been cleared. So it’s an accident just waiting to happen.”
In response, a Liverpool John Lennon Airport spokesperson said the passenger walkways have been cleared but it has been a “challenging extended period” for operations. They said: “In all our car parks, the passenger walkways have been our priority and these have been cleared and gritted regularly throughout this ongoing cold spell.
“In relation to the de-icing equipment, we have the appropriate equipment in place to remove snow and ice as do our handling agents. We have unfortunately experienced some technical faults with some of the snow clearing equipment all within a short space of time over the past few days, however our motor transport department were able to quickly rectify and have these operational again within 1.5 hours.
“We also have appropriate stocks of de-icing fluid (for aircraft) and anti icing fluid (for surfaces) with plenty of both products in on site storage tanks. This has been a challenging extended period of disruptive weather during which other than very short periods we have remained operational throughout.”