Emirates, a global connector of people, places and economies, Friday marked its inaugural flight to Brussels in Belgium. The new daily service will see up to 16,000 Emirates customers traveling on the daily Boeing 777-200LR between Dubai and Brussels each month.

As the airline’s 145th worldwide route, Emirates will play a key role in further developing natural business links between Belgium and key markets in the Far East. Emirates also estimates that it will deliver a boost to the country’s tourism sector, with Belgium “a popular jumping off point” for Europe bound travelers from Australasia.

“We’ve had lots of customers asking us to fly to Brussels over the years. Belgium’s tourism is thriving and we believe that we can drive demand even higher by providing our multi-award winning product and service,” said Thierry Aucoc, Emirates’ SVP commercial operations Europe and Russian Federation.

“Emirates is the only airline offering First-Class seats from Brussels to destinations in the Far and Middle East, providing an unrivaled premium experience for our passengers. As headquarters for a huge number of major global corporations, we are already seeing strong bookings from markets like China, the UAE, Japan and India, one of Belgium’s largest trade partners.”

The UAE is a key trading partner of Belgium with more than 4 billion euro worth of goods exchanged between the two countries each year. Both import and export of goods have grown steadily since 2009 with 1,504 Belgian companies exporting goods to the UAE in 2013.

The arrival of Emirates in Brussels confirms the role that Brussels Airport plays in connecting Belgium and Europe with the rest of the world. The launch of this daily service to Dubai will create 150 new on-site jobs, said Arnaud Feist, CEO Brussels Airport Company.

Brussels is the 37th European passenger destination for Emirates.