New capital connections for Stansted

Stansted Airport will host flight launches to two new capital cities in Europe this week.

Aegean Airlines will launch twice-daily flights to Athens in Greece, while Lithuanian Airlines will offer a direct connection to Vilnius, the European Capital of Culture for 2009.

Nick Barton, strategy and solutions director at Stansted, claimed that the airport offers more direct scheduled connections throughout Europe than any other hub.

Mr Barton said the Aegean Airlines service will provide connections to the carrier's domestic network of 17 destinations in Greece.

He also predicted that the flight to Vilnius, which is reportedly known as one of Europe's most hospitable cities, will become "an extremely popular link" from Stansted.

"Athens and Vilnius are just two of 11 connections to join our European network in the past couple of months and we're also looking forward to welcoming links to Bezier in the Languedoc region of France, and Italy's popular coastal retreat of Rimini, when Ryanair start their direct services from here next month," Mr Barton added.