2016 is another year of growth for Brussels Airlines. When the summer travel season starts on March 27, there will be a new long-haul destination, eight new European routes, and more flights to places that already exist.

During the 2016 summer season, Brussels Airlines is adding a lot more flights. During an average summer week, 50 planes will run an average of 815 European flights and 95 international flights. There are now 72 destinations in Europe, 19 in Africa, and 3 in North America. With the addition of attractive one-way fares, this network expansion gives customers even more options. Also, travellers can earn rewards even faster with LOOP, Brussels Airlines' new loyalty programme.

Toronto

The last long-haul destination that Brussels Airlines added was Toronto. Toronto is the largest city in Canada. It is the capital of the province of Ontario and has more than 2.6 million people living there. Canada's business and financial centre is in the area around Lake Ontario and Toronto. The city has a lot to offer tourists in terms of arts and culture. The 553-meter-tall CN Tower, the aquarium, the Eaton shopping district, the Distillery District, the Zoo, Canada's Wonderland amusement park, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Niagara Falls, which are close by, are all great places to see.

Air Canada, a Star Alliance partner of Brussels Airlines, is based in Toronto, so you can fly from Toronto to many other places in Canada, like Halifax, Ottawa, Edmonton, Quebec, Montreal Metropolitan, and Vancouver. Also, Toronto makes it easy to connect to the U.S.

At the end of March, Brussels Airlines will add a 9th Airbus A330 to its fleet so that it can start flying to Toronto. During the summer, there will be more flights to some of the existing intercontinental destinations:

• Washington (US) (US) There are six flights a week, plus one more flight every week.
• There are six flights a week to Kigali, Rwanda, plus one flight every other day.
• Entebbe (Uganda): 5 flights per week, plus 1 flight every other week.
• Brussels Airlines' list of destinations in Europe now includes at least eight new places to fly to.

Belfast is not only an interesting city to visit, but it is also the gateway to Northern Ireland's beautiful countryside. Belfast is added to the Star Alliance network for the first time. With Jerez de la Frontera, Brussels Airlines can fly to the Costa de la Luz, and with Tenerife and Las Palmas, it can get to the most popular Canary Islands. Brussels Airlines is also starting to fly to Bavaria in Germany now that Nuremberg, the second largest city, is open. Nuremberg is also a great place to visit for a city trip. The number of flights to France has grown with the addition of Nantes, a coastal city (Loire Valley region).

Heraklion (Crete) and Thessaloniki, two of the most popular places to visit in Greece, are added for the first time.

• Northern Ireland / Belfast 5 flights / week
• Two flights a week go to Jerez, which is in Andalusia.
• Las Palmas / Canary Islands 2 flights / week
• The Canary Islands / Tenerife 2 flights / week
• Nuremberg / Germany 6 flights / week
• Nantes / France 12 flights / week
• Heraklion / Crete 2 flights / week
• Thessaloniki and the rest of Greece 2 flights / week

Three Airbus A319 and two Airbus A320 planes will take the place of four AVRO RJ100 planes that are used for regional flights right now.

With the Airbus A319, which has 141 seats, the number of seats available goes up by almost 50 percent. During the summer, Airbus A320 planes will gradually replace A319 planes at several destinations where A319 planes are currently used. So, the number of seats available at many destinations will go up by a lot:

Added more seats during the summer of 2016 in Gothenburg

• Toulouse
• Marseille
• London Heathrow Airport
• Barcelona
• Faro

Lisbon now has 10 flights per week, which is three more than before.

• Porto: 13 flights per week, plus 6 flights every day.
• Malaga: 15 flights per week (+1 flight per day).
• Alicante: 4 flights per week, plus 1 flight every day.
• Billund: 16 flights per week, plus 4 flights every day.
• Edinburgh: 17 flights per week, plus 4 flights every day.
• Manchester: 24 flights per week, plus 5 flights every day.
• Venice - 20 flights / week + (1 freq.)
• Vilnius - 6 flights / week + (1 freq.)

In the summer of 2016, Lufthansa Group airlines serve 316 destinations in 101 countries. There are also many new and extra services for air travellers.

Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa, and SWISS, which are all part of the Lufthansa Group, will be even more appealing to both business and leisure travellers this summer. And as always, customers can count on the Lufthansa Group for excellent service, high quality, and reliability.

With over 23,140 weekly flights, the Lufthansa Group airlines will have one of the most extensive networks of air services in the world when the summer schedules for 2016 start on March 27. The Group's airlines will serve 316 destinations in 101 countries through their hubs in Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, and Brussels, as well as through a number of point-to-point connections (compared to 321 destinations in 103 countries in Summer 2015).

This wide range of services will be boosted by over 18,000 codeshare flights offered by Lufthansa Group in partnership with about 30 other airlines. This will give Lufthansa Group customers access to a network of flights that goes almost everywhere in the world. All Lufthansa Group airlines' summer schedules for 2016 run from Sunday, March 27, to Saturday, October 29, 2016.