LIVERPOOL John Lennon Airport (JLA) says last month was the busiest in its 78-year history as passengers headed overseas to escape the poor British summer.

More than 580,000 passengers passed through the terminal in August – beating the previous record of just over 575,000 from August 2007.

Craig Richmond, chief executive of JLA owner Peel Airports, told LDP Business he was “pleasantly surprised” by the figures – and hopes that the airport will be able to attract more routes next year thanks to its success in 2011.

Mr Richmond said that success was due to the airport’s strong line-up of routes, with budget airlines Easyjet and Ryanair adding new summer destinations. He said KLM’s flights to global destinations via Amsterdam were also proving popular.

And Mr Richmond said the poor UK summer this year had also encouraged people to go abroad for their holidays.

“We were really pleasantly surprised and very happy that people are still choosing to fly,” he said. “We have got to give Mother Nature some credit – it hasn’t been the greatest summer, and that may have made people say ‘let’s go away’.

“But we have to give a lot of credit to our airlines. They go to some great destinations.