Jet2.com and Jet2holidays have announced Birmingham as their eighth UK base.
They will launch 15 destinations for summer 2017 from the airport – Alicante, Crete, Faro, Fuerteventura, Girona, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Majorca, Malaga, Menorca, Paphos, Reus, Rhodes and Tenerife.
Flights to Alicante, Faro and Majorca will be daily and the first will take off on March 30.
All flights will operated by four brand new Boeing 737-800 next generation aircraft. From September, a total of 30 new aircraft are being delivered over an 18-month period.
Alan Cross, head of trade for Jet2holidays, said Birmingham was a natural progression and the decision had been influenced by pressure from its trade partners.
Two sales executives have been appointed on the back of the new operation – Chris Redfearn will cover Birmingham and Dale Marriott will cover Birmingham and the Midlands region.
Cross said Birmingham’s summer programme would also be extended into the winter 2017/18 period but could not confirm details.
Midcounties Co-operative Travel GM Alistair Rowland said as the biggest agent in the region it had been lobbying Jet2 to expand into Birmingham for some time.
"We had expected perhaps one plane doing a few routes, but to get four planes doing all of these routes – and some daily – is staggering," he said.
"This gives us a whole depth of distribution which will breathe new life through our retail chain and will strengthen our resolve to develop shops in the Midlands."
