German national airline Lufthansa, already basking in the strong performance of its Birmingham operation, has announced more connections from the Midlands city to destinations in central and eastern Europe this summer.

Despite the downturn, Lufthansa is sticking with its “full-service” business model which has help make Birmingham its number three UK operation with big increases in passenger numbers to its five Indian destinations as well as to Beijing, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

There are now 71 flights a week going out of Birmingham to Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf with a large proportion of Lufthansa’s passengers going on to further destinations.

From this summer new destinations willi include Rzeszów in south-eastern Poland, Poznan in the west of the country and a daily connection from Munich to Lviv in Ukraine. In addition, a new daily connection from DŸsseldorf to Venice will be added to the schedule on 20 April.

On weekends, Lufthansa will also operate direct connections to the two Adriatic cities of Split and Dubrovnik (Croatia) from Munich. Elsewhere in Europe, the connections to Madrid, Stavanger (Norway), Nizhny Novgorod and Perm (Russia) will also be operating with additional flights.

There will also be more flights to Tel Aviv, the Saudi Arabian cities of Jeddah and Riyadh, Muscat, the capital of Oman, and Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. There will also be additional flights to the long-haul destinations of Algiers, Sana in Yemen), Dubai and Mumbai in India.

“The new and improved connections offered by the summer timetable show the importance of the Midlands market to Lufthansa even in the current economic climate”, said Marianne Sammann, Lufthansa general manager UK & Ireland.

“Our Midlands passengers travelling through Birmingham will have more and even better connections to a wide range of destinations. While we are not immune to the impact of the current financial problems, Lufthansa is still committed to meeting the wishes of our customers and continues to focus on the development of attractive products and services.

“The crisis does not represent standstill at Lufthansa – on the contrary, major investments in the development of new products and services will allow us to offer our customers true added value and greater comfort.”

This includes 43 new aircraft and about 150 million euros invested in renovating and improving its business lounges across the world.