British Airways begins one of its busiest summers ever in the UK regions this week with the launch of new routes and additional flights from five regional airports.

With the addition of two new Embraer 190 jets to the airlines fleet, almost 200,000 seats will be on sale to some of the most popular business and leisure destinations in Europe and the UK.

Brand new routes include Manchester and Edinburgh to Florence and Manchester to Dublin and there is extra capacity to Europe from other UK airports.

In addition to the new routes from Manchester, flights to Malaga and Palma have doubled and there is increased frequency to Nice and Ibiza.

There are also extra flights to Florence and Palma from Birmingham, extra flights to Malaga, Ibiza and Palma from Bristol and extra flights to Milan, Nice and Florence from Stansted Airport.

All regional flights operate on modern Embraer jets with a choice of Club Europe and Euro Traveller cabins and two-abreast seating so that every customer can have either a window or aisle seat.

Each-way fares from Manchester to Dublin from £26, Birmingham to Palma from £44 and Bristol to Malaga from £44 are available to book now on www.ba.com

In addition to the regional services British Airways will launche a twice-weekly summer service from Heathrow to the Grecian island of Kefalonia on May 15 which will operate until October 6.