Northern Ireland's biggest low-cost carrier, easyJet, is going to increase the number of routes on which it is offering its services from Belfast International Airport to 23 this week with the introduction of 4 fresh routes.

Gdansk in Poland is the first to be launched by the airline. The services to Gdansk will be started tomorrow. Next comes the turn of services to Prague and Venice, which will be launched on Thursday and the services to Barcelona will be started on Saturday.

The airline expects to serve over 140,000 travellers on these new routes in the first year.

The development means the carrier is taking in another aircraft, which will bring the number of Belfast based aircrafts to 6.

easyJet UK General Manager, David Osborne, said, "Increasing the number of easyJet routes from Belfast International to 23, further cements our commitment to the region and its people. We have been in Northern Ireland for nine years and we intend to keep expanding for many years to come".

Osborne further said, "We will carry close to 3.3 million passengers from Belfast in the next 12 months, and the addition of the sixth aircraft means a total investment of £120 million. Overall, we have made a huge investment in Northern Ireland--strongly supporting the economy and opening links to Europe that are vital for business as well as leisure travelers".

In the month of July, easyJet carried its 20 millionth customer from Belfast International Airport.