Belgium’s national carrier, Brussels Airlines is to introduce a new summer link to Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city. This will be the Star Alliance member’s third link into the Mediterranean country alongside its existing Brussels – Athens service and new flight in 2016 to the island of Crete, the most popular Greek holiday destination.

The new Brussels – Thessaloniki route will support the strong Greek diaspora in Belgium and southern Netherlands. Many Greeks who live in Belgium have their roots in Northern Greece and return to their birthplace each summer.

Brussels Airlines will introduce a twice weekly schedule to Makedonia Airport, also a popular gateway to the famous tourist region of Chalkidiki, from May 2016 through to October 2016. It will also offer a twice weekly flight on the new link to Heraklion from the Easter break next year

“We invest heavily in our Greece offer next summer because we strongly believe in the growing tourism potential of the country for next year. With flights to Thessaloniki, Crete and Athens we fly to all the important regions of the country and we offer interesting travel options for those who travel to the mainland or the islands,” said Frédéric Dechamps, Vice President Sales Benelux Europe, Brussels Airlines.

The new Thessaloniki service will operate from Brussels in the morning and return from Greece in the early afternoon every Thursday and Sunday. This will support the local demand while also providing good connection options from/to Germany, Scandinavia, France and the UK through the Brussels Airlines and partner operator services.

According to OAG schedule data, the Brussels – Thessaloniki market is currently served on a seasonal summer only basis by both Aegean Airlines and leisure carrier Jetairfly. Next year Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium has already released flights with a weekly offer from May 2016 through to October 2016.

The seasonality of flights in this market is clear to see when you look at monthly demand this decade. Over the first eight months of this year passenger traffic on this city pair has more than doubled the performance over the same period last year, according to MIDT data, and is on track to record the largest annual demand since 2010 with over 20,000 O&D passengers flying on the route.