A Polish airline operating out of Shannon airport is expanding its range of services from today with the first direct flight to the Baltic city of Gdansk.
Low-cost carrier Centralwings will operate twice-weekly flights from Shannon to Poland's second city with Boeing 737 aircraft.
Centralwings already operates a successful service from Shannon to the Polish capital, Warsaw, three days a week.
The new flight comes in response to the rapidly expanding population of Polish nationals who are based in the midwest.
Up to 7,000 Poles are currently living and working in Limerick while a number of specialist shops have also opened in the city to cater for the Polish community.
On November 14th, a delegation from Limerick city will hold discussions with their counterparts in Krakow about a twinning process.
Limerick is also home to the Irish-Polish Cultural and Business Association.
The association has fostered strong links between both communities, particularly in light of Poland's accession to the EU in 2004.
President of the association Pat O'Sullivan said that many Irish people were now choosing Poland as a new holiday destination.
"Obviously we have many thousands of Polish people living and working in Ireland, but thousands of Irish people are now visiting cities like Warsaw, Gdansk and Krakow for weekend breaks," Mr O'Sullivan said.
"Many of these Irish people end up in investing in Poland because there are great opportunities there."
Centralwings is also expanding its Irish operation further tomorrow with the start of twice-weekly direct flights from Cork airport to Krakow.