Munich Airport’s new summer timetable features flights to a total of 223 destinations in 68 countries around the world, including 20 German cities, 154 continental routes and 49 destinations in the long-haul segment. For the new timetable period from Sunday, March 27 to October 29, 2011, the airlines have booked slots for a total of 247,000 take-offs and landings.

The increase in flight connections from Munich will benefit passengers traveling to long-haul destinations in particular. The number of weekly departures in this segment shows an increase of 16 flights over the 2010 summer timetable. Lufthansa is adding two weekly flights to its attractive intercontinental routes to Mumbai, India, Sao Paulo, Brazil and Singapore, thus upgrading all of them to daily services. With the addition of one flight a week to Seoul/Busan, that destination will now be served by a daily Lufthansa flight as well.

This summer will also see an increase in opportunities to travel to the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf. Last week Qatar Airways began flying 11 times a week to Doha, as compared with seven previously. As a result, weekly departures from Munich Airport to that region now number 46 flights operated by five different airlines.

Starting on April 30, 2011, yet another attractive long-haul destination will make its Munich premiere with the launch of a twice-weekly service by Yakutia Airlines to Irkutsk, Russia. This university city, with nearly 600,000 inhabitants, is a stop on the Trans-Siberian Railway not far from Lake Baikal.

In the continental traffic segment, Lufthansa is increasing its services on many existing routes while adding three new summer holiday destinations, with flights departing from Munich every Saturday to Antalya, Ibiza and Palermo. SAS, one of Lufthansa’s Star Alliance partners, will be flying from Munich to the Norwegian capital, Oslo, for the first time, and is launching the service with six weekly departures. KLM, from the Netherlands, is adding a new daily flight to its Amsterdam service, bringing the total to six flights a day.

The holiday travel specialist TUIFly will resume its services to the Cape Verde Islands with weekly flights to Boa Vista and Sal. Instead of flying to Monastir in Tunisia, this summer TUIFly will operate a weekly service to Enfidha. Airberlin and Condor will also be switching their Monastir flights to Enfidha this year. Tel Aviv will be served twice a week by TUIFly as of July 13.

London is still the number one foreign destination served from Munich Airport, with a total of about 4,100 departures during the summer season. Berlin, with 4,900 departures, remains the top domestic route, ahead of Düsseldorf.