All Things Travel: New International Airlines Landing At Logan Airport
BOSTON (CBS) -- International airlines are landing at Logan Airport in record numbers.
This week, three new routes from Logan were added and by the middle of June, six more departures have been schedule to Europe and Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Even though the number of flights has been cut, Massport is welcoming its biggest growth in recent years.
This was the forecast by CEO Tom Glynn at a meeting of The New England Business Travel Association members at the new Hilton Garden Inn, located just north of Logan Airport. It's the first new hotel property in East Boston in 14 years.
One of the major problems facing Logan is being able to handle more than 33 million passengers this year.
Massport is starting a five-year project to rebuild Terminal E to handle the new airlines
and handle bigger Airbus jets.
The trio of new routes started this week from Boston include non-stop service to London's Gatwick Airport on Norwegian Air, as well as service to Oslo. Scandinavian also began service to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Other cities scheduled to start service are Dusseldorf (Air Berlin); Manchester, England; Cologne, Germany (Eurowings) and Lisbon (TAP).
Eight airlines that have started international flights at Logan made brief presentations at the NEBTA meeting, followed by a question-and-answer session.
The success of the new Boston carriers can be shown by an increase in flights last year.
Emirates added a second daily flight to Dubai, and Hainan added a second flight to
Beijing, as well as Shanghai.
Airlines coming to Logan like the combination of business and leisure travelers, many of them students in Massachusetts.
"The continuing momentum is something that the business community should be very proud of," said Glynn. "This is the fifth year in a row that Logan will have record passenger numbers."
Logan now serves 53 international destinations.
All Things Travel reports with Bob Weiss can be heard on WBZ News Radio.