Lufthansa has returned to Bristol after a five-year absence.
The airline has re-introduced the south west hub to its global network as a codeshare agreement with bmi regional.
The bmi regional/Lufthansa partnership, which starts today, serves two key German cities, Munich and Frankfurt, and marks the return to Bristol for Lufthansa which pulled out of Bristol in 2009, in the height of the economic downturn.
The codeshare applies to six weekly flights to Munich and 11 to Frankfurt.
Bmi regional chief executive Cathal O’Connell said the new Bristol services serve a wide area, including the M4 corridor and the M5 catchment area and provide connectivity to over 200 Lufthansa destinations worldwide.
It means business and leisure travellers from Bristol Airport will be able to access Lufthansa’s worldwide network offering flights to 235 global destinations.
He said: "Locally – and in the wider south west – there is huge support for Bristol Airport. Our new services have been very positively received and are seen as providing a very important link from the Bristol region to worldwide destinations for business and leisure.
"Both Frankfurt and Munich are significant business and leisure destinations for us."
The Bristol codeshares follow a new bmi regional East Midlands-Brussels service, which was announced last week, and a Newcastle-Brussels service, which was announced earlier this year.
As well as taking passengers to Germany, the routes are also expected to be popular for connecting flights into Asia, the Americas and Africa.
