Review of easyJet flight Liverpool → Belfast in Economy

Liverpool John Lennon AIrport

The gateway to Merseyside- Liverpool's John Lennon Airport, named after the famous Beatles musician since 2001.

Liverpool Airport operated as Liverpool Speke Airport until 1986 when a new Runway and terminal facility was opened up that year.

The largest operator at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport is easyJet, who opened up their first North UK base at Liverpool in 1998, making it their second base after London Luton. For a while in the late 1990s until 2001, easyJet even offered a domestic route between Liverpool and Luton. The airlines Liverpool operations were featured heavily in the UK Documentary series AIRLINE from 1999 to 2006.

easyJet currently operates 24 routes out of Liverpool Airport as of June 2023. Liverpool Airport (LPL) is a long time Low-Cost Airline Airport with all airline operations being done by budget airlines, with two exceptions of a long standing Aer Lingus Regional and a recently added Lufthansa service.

Being a long-time fan of "Airline", it was amazing to get a flight from my local Bournemouth Airport to Liverpool in the summer of 2021 and to finally visit the airport I'd seen so many times on the TV Show. I didn't notice anyone from the show at Liverpool Airport that day, but given some 15 years had passed since the show ended, I think its unlikely anyone from that show is still at Liverpool Airport still working for easyJet or the company operating for them.

Nostalgia aside, it was a nice easy to navigate airport landside, and I found my way to security for my Liverpool to Belfast service with ease. There was a good 10-15 minute wait to get through security, but given the situation at the time- I wasn't too surprised and I did leave plenty of time just in case of a hold up.

Most of the airport retail and cafes had reopened, an Aspire Lounge was easily spotted, but I didn't have enough time to make a visit worth while. A few airside views were possible through the windows, but it was mostly aircraft parked up or in storage. There weren't many flights as international travel was still seeing heavy entry restrictions. It was nice to see some various Game Machines set up for use, that will keep the kids, teens and occasional "man-child" preoccupied.

I was tempted, but I had no change- so I didn't bother.

Eventually it was time to board my flight over to Belfast International (Aldergrove), though the part of the Airport we left from was notably lacking in viewing spots, so it was a bit dull and dreary.

At the time of this flight (August 2021), mask wearing in public places had just been lifted, but if you travelled on public transport or on a flight- mask wearing was still mandatory, it also should be noted the maskless rule was an England & Wales rule- which wasn't done by Scotland or Northern Ireland at the time.

An open board as always, which offered this really unique view of all the stored easyJet Airbus planes and a solitary Ryanair plane in between a Liverpool-Dublin service, the Republic of Ireland was quite lenient on UK travellers for the most part of 2021.

easyJet EZ607 (LPL-BFS)

Our flight today was operated by Airbus A320-ceo (G-EZGX), delivered brand new to easyJet in July 2018. Making it one of the last A320ceo generation aircraft to join the airline. It continues to fly for the UK division of easyJet as of June 2023, fitted with 186 seats.

This was my first easyJet A320ceo flight since August 2015 (also my first EZY flight) as all my prior flights until this one were operated by either the Airbus A319 or Airbus A320neo! I'm yet to experience their Airbus A321neo and I never flew on easyJet when they operated the Boeing 737.

I was seated in the rear half of the cabin today, so it was in through the rear door. 

The boarding was complete soon after I got on as I was one of the last in the que, the flight was just over half full, but still plenty of empty seats scattered the cabin. I had seat neighbours for this flight, but I wasn't worried as it was a short 35-40 minute flight time.

We pushed back on time and made our way to the runway for take off.

Pushing back I got a glimpse of the "odd ball" Ryanair on its own. Wizzair was offering flights out of Liverpool as well, but there were no flights being operated the day I was flying.

We took off, it was a cloudy day, but the cloud base was quite high- so it allowed for some nice views of Liverpool as we climbed out and headed westward for Belfast and Northern Ireland.

This is the first time I've done a domestic UK flight not involving a flight to or from London or the South of England, so this flight was quite exciting for me as its not something I would do normally compare to anyone else on this flight.

We climbed through the clouds and came up above them, we must have been just over 20,000ft- there's no way we'd be at 30,000ft+ for such a short hop of this nature.

Being a budget airline in one of the hardest times for commercial air travel, easyJet began the sales pitch of their onboard Bistro.

I bought a can of Coca-Cola for the flight, but my reason for such was a promotion I saw in the Bistro menu, I could win a prize due to a partnership running between Coca-Cola and easyJet at the time (probably to boost sales), and low and behold the card I got won me a free soft drink- so I asked for a can of Sprite (lemonade) for the transit across Belfast before my flight home to London Heathrow later that evening.

Shortly after finishing my drink, we began our decent into a rainy Belfast, there was a thick and low cloud cover, but we broke through it minutes from touch down. Belfast International is quite large and spacious compare to Belfast City.

After landing, we taxied off the runway and went over to the remote parking stands used by easyJet. No boarding jet bridges here, its all in the open- even on a miserable drizzly day like this!

I waited for most the others to leave the plane before grabbing some cabin shots of the slimline seats adorned with the black and orange fabric. Exiting the plane it was soaking wet and some deep pooling was forming well on the taxiway… my shoes got a good washout as did my feet.

The bright orange easyJet Airbus planes parked at Belfast International provided some nice colour to a dull afternoon!

Going through UK Arrivals, I went to a Belfast Tourist desk to buy a ticket for the buses to get me over to Belfast City Airport, I had time for an hour or two in the city itself, which was going to be a washout!

But once I got my bus ticket, it was time to get on with the next phase of the trip, it was nice to see a healthy looking arrivals board in Belfast International- even if it was majority domestic flights from the UK mainland, all easyJet barring one sole Jet2 flight.

And thus concludes this trip from Liverpool to Belfast with easyJet, hope you enjoyed the review and found this archival trip from my past a good read.