Eurowings is taking the next step towards pan-European expansion, with the low-cost carrier opening its first base in a non-German-speaking foreign country in Palma de Mallorca.

The Spanish island in the Mediterranean has long been seen as a top holiday destination with guaranteed sunshine far beyond Germany’s borders and has been breaking one visitor record after another for months.

Majorca’s tourism organisations are expecting the existing record of 11.6 million holidaymakers, set in 2015, to be smashed this year.

The growth in passenger numbers at the Son Sant Joan airport in Palma de Mallorca has been correspondingly high.

Eurowings will position itself as a key player at this airport and from May 2017 will initially station two aircraft on the popular sunshine isle.

In future Eurowings will offer a large number of low-cost direct connections from Majorca to Germany and other European cities, correspondingly expanding the route network of more than 130 destinations overall.

Oliver Wagner, chief executive, Eurowings, said: “Nowadays, customers quite clearly prefer affordable direct flights – this applies right across Europe and far beyond.

“With the new Eurowings we’re developing a dynamic and increasingly pan-European system of low-cost flights.

“Our first base in Spain is the next important milestone on this path.”

The expansion of Eurowings will also bring growth and new jobs to Spain.

The airline will hire crews on the Balearic island for the two new Palma-based aircraft and in the first stage will create 75 new jobs in cockpit and cabin.

The Airbus A320 will be operated by Eurowings Europe, an airline with Austrian licensing successfully launched in July 2016 and domiciled in Vienna.