John Lennon gets a makeover as Liverpool promotion gathers steam

Liverpool's John Lennon airport is preparing for a makeover as the city gears up to become the European Capital of Culture for 2008.

The design firm entrusted with the task, Broome Jenkins, won the contract for the revamp last December, but September is the deadline for the completion of a vast mural which will be at the heart of the project.

At 300m long, this impressively-proportioned piece of wall art incorporates images of Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool, Chester and the Lake District, rendered by a local artist, giving incoming visitors to Liverpool airport a foretaste of the attractions of the wider region.

The mural will even be promoted on plasma screens installed on board the seven buses which ship passengers from the terminal to waiting planes on the runway.

Each of those buses will get its own personalised makeover, too, with a 'wrap' promoting Liverpool encasing each of their frames.

Liverpool Airport is expecting an influx of visitors during the city's year of celebrity, strengthening its 'customer offer' yet further after it acquired new routes linking the city to Lisbon, Portugal, and Innsbruck, Austria, last month.