Continental Airlines is increasing capacity on its New York Newark service from Manchester this winter by replacing its DC-10 with a Boeing 777 aircraft.
The switch to the larger aircraft will give Continental 41 extra seats on the daily service from September 10.
A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport said the airline is already the major player on the route, with 42% of passengers.
Some 377,000 customers use Manchester’s New York services, with British Airways and Delta Air Lines also offering daily services. Both use smaller B767s seating between 195-213 passengers.
The B777 service will be the first time the new state-of-the-art aircraft has been used on transatlantic services from Manchester. Malaysia Airlines uses the aircraft to Kuala Lumpur.
Meanwhile, other airlines are stepping up frequencies from Manchester. Air Canada is increasing its five-times weekly winter service to Toronto to a daily operation from this winter.
European, Asian and African services are being increased with new flights from Uzbekistan Airways, Swedish carrier Skyways, Dutch carrier BASE, Singapore Airlines and Egyptair.
Uzbekistan Airways is to reintroduce its twice-weekly service to Tashkent on November 4 with an Airbus A310.
The airline operated the route a year ago.
The spokeswoman for Manchester Airport said the new service will prove popular with Manchester’s Indian community – there are connections to India from Tashkent – since Air India has dropped its Manchester flights.
Skyways will operate a double-daily flight to Stockholm with 50-seater Embraer 145 jets from October 30. The service is expected to be codeshared with SAS.
BASE launches a double daily Manchester-Cologne operation from August 30. The airline is to use an Embraer 30-seater turboprop aircraft.
In an improvement to Asian services, Singapore Airlines will offer a daily service from October 31. Services are currently six weekly and stop in Europe or India. Egyptair is to start a weekly Manchester-Luxor flight from September 12. Services are on Sundays, using an Airbus A320.
Manchester expects the new flights to help it increase annual passenger numbers to 18m, from 17m last year.