BRISTOL Airport has completed another stage of its expansion plans this week.

A new £600,000 business lounge was opened on Friday, 24 hours after bosses struck a deal with Thomas Cook to launch new European flights.

Gran Canaria, the Greek island of Kos and a flight to the Bulgarian city of Bourgas have all been added to the airport’s summer schedule.

The move means Thomas Cook will now offer nine flights from Bristol and the airport’s aviation director Shaun Browne said he was delighted to have secured the deal.

The trio of new routes are the latest ones to be added to the timetables, after Hamburg, Frankfurt and Copenhagen were announced last year.

The airport is currently undergoing major renovation work which will allow it to cater for 10 million passengers a year by 2020.

A hotel, new car park and more boarding gates are all part of the airport’s expansion plans for the coming years and this week saw the new executive lounge opened for the first time.

The new larger facility is designed to attract more business travellers to and from the airport and for the first time has a hot food counter in it. It will be run by Servisair, which operates more than 20 similar lounges across Europe.

Chief executive officer Robert Sinclair said: “The opening of the Aspire Lounge raises our offer to passengers to another level, particularly those travelling regularly on business.

“This is a stylish, modern facility that can only enhance the airport experience and encourage people to choose Bristol Airport when making their travel plans.”