KLM has seen ¡°particularly strong¡± growth on its routes to southern Europe and North America this summer as it enters the busiest period of the year.

The Dutch carrier, which is flying to 161 destinations this summer, said that it expected to carry 6.4 million passengers during July and August with seat capacity up by 4 per cent year-on-year.

¡°Demand remains strong for European destinations such as London, Rome and Berlin. For long-haul travel, passengers are choosing destinations including Tokyo, New York, Cape Town and Cura?ao,¡± added KLM in a statement.

The airline has added six new routes from its Amsterdam Schiphol hub this summer, including long-haul flights to San Diego and Georgetown in Guyana, with a service to Hyderabad in India due to start in September. New short-haul destinations are Ljubljana, Exeter and Biarritz.

KLM is also adding frequencies on long-haul routes from Amsterdam to Las Vegas, Osaka, Tokyo Narita, Edmonton and Cape Town. On its short-haul network, extra flights have been added to Belfast, Porto, Barcelona, Split and Krakow.

In another move, KLM has consolidated its Milan flights at Linate Airport, which is closer to the city centre than Malpensa Airport, where the carrier¡¯s flights have been discontinued.