The first Eurowings long-haul flight from Düsseldorf took off earlier, headed for Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic.

The dream destination will be operated with four flights a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Eurowings flight EW1140 takes off from Düsseldorf at 13:40 and lands in Punta Cana at 19:25 local time.

The return flight EW1141 takes off at 20:55 Caribbean local time and touches down in Düsseldorf next morning at 11:25.

Varadero in Cuba (first flight on December 16th) and Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic (from December 14th) will follow Punta Cana as long-haul destinations from Düsseldorf.

Flights to Varadero are operated on Saturdays and to Puerto Plata every Thursday.

Cancun in Mexico, which Eurowings will fly to every Monday as of December 18th, completes the quartet.

Oliver Wagner, Eurowings chief commercial officer, said: “Now Düsseldorf, the largest airport in North Rhine-Westphalia, is also getting a low-cost long-haul airline with Eurowings.

“The advance bookings for our flights are already very high.

“The demand for our offering is clearly there.”

However, according to Wagner, the four Caribbean destinations are only the beginning.

“We will continue to expand the long-haul business in Düsseldorf and we will increase to four aircraft in Düsseldorf in summer 2018,” he added.

“Then we’ll also connect Düsseldorf to destinations in the USA.”