Monarch Airlines is establishing Manchester, Birmingham and Luton-Porto routes

Ian Chambers, Monarch Managing Director announced today, in a Press Conference held in Palácio do Freixo, Porto, that the airline would add new routes to Porto for the summer schedule 2017.

Monarch will operate 3 new routes to Manchester, Birmingham and Luton, starting Friday, April 28.

The airline offers a total of nine flights, three flights between Luton and Porto, three flights between Birmingham and Porto and three flights between Manchester and Porto.

The airline forecasts transporting an average 75 million passengers for the summer schedule.

The Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira stated that "the variety and the competition is always very helpful for us. It brings us three new destinations - Manchester, Birmingham, Luton (although we already had this destination)".

For Rui Moreira, "Manchester and Birmingham are two of the major industrial cities in the UK and this is of great importance for the Portuguese in this region. It will be very important for tourism and for business, which is what we want right now, investment".

Monarch is headquartered in Luton and was voted the world's most punctual low cost airline in OAG's Punctuality League 2016. Monarch was established in 1968, so it will celebrate 50 years next year.

The carrier is a leading UK independent airline group and includes a scheduled airline, an in-house tour operator and an award-winning engineering division. The airline flies from five UK bases: London Gatwick, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds-Bradford and Luton.

The airline offers 6 million sector seats to leisure destinations; the tour operating division offers package holidays across the airline's scheduled network focusing on beach, city and ski breaks.

For Monarch, Porto is "one of the biggest destinations and also a "growing destination."

Managing Director of Monarch Holidays, Richard Francis, added that "Porto is a fascinating city. It has so much to offer. Places of great historical interest, great local restaurants and bars, and of course, the wonderful scenery".

"All of this, as a combination...should make Porto a great destination for our customers", concludes Monarch's Managing Director.

This is a clear indication that Porto is becoming increasingly important as a direct destination in Europe.