PASSENGER numbers at Liverpool John Lennon Airport (JLA) have continued their upward trajectory, with the first quarter of this year showing 15% growth compared with the same period in 2009.

The airport attracted 1.12m passengers in the first three months of the year, up 143,000, although it remained below the 2007 and 2008 levels.

January saw an 8% uplift, to 325,000 passengers, while the busier months of February and March had increases of 18%, to 367,000 and 425,000 respectively.

There have now been five consecutive monthly increases after 18 months of decline. 2009 was a tough year for UK airports and JLA showed an 8% decline in passenger numbers to 4.93m – the lowest level for four years.

It was the first significant blip in an almost continuous rise in passenger numbers since the mid-1990s at JLA.

However, the airport’s management is confident that this year could see annual passenger numbers get close to the 5.5m peak seen in 2007.

That would require an increase of about 10% on last year – an improvement which was achieved during the Easter weekend when 68,500 passengers used JLA in four days, 6,800 more than in 2009.

JLA spokesman Robin Tudor said: “The first three months have been very encouraging.

“We would hope to get near to our previous high in 2007 of 5.5m passengers.

“But by no means is the difficult period over. We are ahead of the game, we have seen greater numbers in percentage terms and seen the upturn before other airports.”

Its three main airlines have all added routes as the airport continues to grow the number of services, despite the global slowdown in air travel.