German leisure carrier Condor will introduce flights to Fort-de-France, the capital of the Caribbean island Martinique from winter 2016/2017, according to its newly updated flight schedules. The airline will launch a weekly Sunday flight to the French overseas department from Frankfurt from November 6, 2016 on a routing that offers a continuation service to Tobago before returning to Europe. The flight will be operated using Boeing 767-300ER equipment.

It is part of an expansion that will see Condor grow its activities from Munich as its Caribbean network increases to 17 holiday destinations.

This growth will see new winter holiday flights being offered from Munich to Barbados, Havana, Santo Domingo and Costa Rica, while more frequencies are being introduced to Cancun, Mauritius and Punta Cana from the southern German metropolis.

Speaking to Routesonline at this year’s Routes Americas forum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Wilken Bellmann, Head of Network Development Long-Haul, Thomas Cook Airlines Group said: “We have continuously expanded our long-haul routes from Munich in recent years. Compared to this winter, we will be doubling our offer in winter 2016/17.”

The new routes include a weekly Munich – Santo Domingo – San Jose, Costa Rica link from November 7, 2016 and a weekly Munich – Tobago – Barbados – Munich from November 12, 2016. Meanwhile, the new summer 2016 route between Munich and Havana will continue into the winter schedule and grow from weekly to three times weekly.

The long-haul growth is possible thanks to the arrival of three new long-haul aircraft which will be added to the Condor fleet in 2016 and Bellmann is attending the air service development event to look at future long-haul growth.

“We are open to new opportunities to grow our long-haul network in the Americas and will look at all options before finalising our future flight schedules,” he said.

The new winter schedule will see Condor offer 52 flights per week into the Caribbean from the German markets of Frankfurt and Munich, as well as from Vienna in Austria. But there is also growth into other parts of the world with a daily link to Mauritius (five per week from Frankfurt and two from Munich) and starting from September an increased flight offer to the Seychelles, with a second weekly flight departing from Frankfurt.

Every year, over seven million customers fly with Condor to around 75 destinations in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. As part of the Thomas Cook Group, Condor, along with Thomas Cook Airlines UK, Thomas Cook Airlines Scandinavia and Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium form the Thomas Cook Group Airlines and have a combined fleet of almost 100 aircraft. Condor is responsible for 42 of these, comprising nine Airbus A320s, seven A321s, 13 757-300s and 13 767-300s.