STANSTED Airport is celebrating the introduction of new flight routes to Greece, the Shetland Islands and Albania this week.

STANSTED Airport is celebrating the introduction of new flight routes to Greece, the Shetland Islands and Albania this week.

The Shetland Islands will be linked directly to the capital for the first time, and the Stansted service is Albanian Airline's first direct link between Tirana and London.

Flyglobespan will launch the first scheduled low-cost services from Stansted to Athens in Greece, while Atlantic Airways will be operating the Shetland Islands service.

Flyglobespan have been operating in the Scottish market for many years and already run direct flights to Tenerife from Stansted.

“Greece is a relatively new market for low-cost airlines operating out of the UK, but we've already had great success with this link out of Glasgow and advanced bookings show the connection is going to be just as popular from London,” said Flyglobespan chairman Tom Dalrymple.

“A daily service is a big challenge but we feel this gives passengers much more flexibility at very competitive prices and we're looking forward to growing our business from Stansted.”

Albanian Airlines, the country's national carrier, launched its first direct services between the Albanian capital and London on Sunday.

“Launching our first direct link between Tirana and London was a day of great significance for us as Albania's national carrier,” said commercial manager Genci Resuli.

“We feel certain that direct connections between Albania and the United Kingdom will become extremely important in the years to come, and we are confident this new service will be very popular with both business and leisure travellers.”

The third new service to arrive this week will be the first direct connection to the Shetland Isles, which were previously only accessible by complex air and ferry crossings.

Atlantic Airways sales and marketing director Kent Christensen said: “When we announced our intention to start this new route last November, it provoked huge interest, and this helped us to commit to extending our operation by two months to the end of October. We have sold close to 90% of our seats in June, and with July flights already 75% full, this is very encouraging.”

A recent report has revealed that Stansted offers more schedule flight connections throughout Europe than any other airport in the world. This month more than 140 scheduled destinations will be served, across more than 30 countries and operated by 25 scheduled airlines.

“Our route network continues to expand at great pace,” said Stansted's business development and planning director Nick Barton