On June 21, Newquay Cornwall Airport saw the start of Lufthansa's, Germany's national carrier, new weekly air services from Dusseldorf International Airport.

Lufthansa Regional franchise partner Eurowings is operating weekly Saturday services to this important German city in the heart of the Rhein-Ruhr region using Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft.

"The beautiful scenery and landscape of the Cornwall region is well known to German TV viewers because of the Rosamunde Pilcher novels that are extremely popular here," says Lufthansa Senior Vice President Dr. Christoph Klingenberg,

"Our arrival at Newquay is in response to the wishes of our customers to experience this beautiful region themselves. That is why we are introducing this new route. Forward bookings for the summer months on the route are extremely encouraging to date with seat load factors for July already in excess of 71 per cent," he noted.

"We are absolutely delighted to welcome our first route from Germany. Cornwall sees a lot of visitors from Germany and we are pleased that Lufthansa now offers them the opportunity to fly directly into the heart of the UK's most attractive County - its rugged coastline, beautiful gardens and award winning cuisine are just some of the things that visitors can enjoy. This new route is a great addition to our growing international network," said Karen Medweth, Commercial Manager.

The Saturday service will run until September 13 2008, with departures from Newquay at 11:00 BST and return flights from Dusseldorf departing at 08:55 local time.

Lufthansa is the third mainline carrier to serve Newquay, joining Swiss International (and its charter flights to Zurich) and British Airways, now established on the London Gatwick route. The airline recently confirmed it would be a year round service.

"This is further evidence that Cornwall is not just attractive to regional and low cost carriers, but legacy carriers too," highlighted Newquay Cornwall Airport project director Chris Cain.

The airport is on course to handle 500,000 passengers with year with a route network comprising 24 destinations. It recently opened its new arrivals hall which marks the latest phase of ongoing development plans to increase the capacity of the terminal to meet a throughput of 700,000 passengers a year.