The USA’s love affair with Europe continued last year, according to preliminary figures published by the US Commerce Department’s Office of Travel & Tourism Industries.

Almost 13 million Americans picked up their passports, invested in travel insurance and crossed the Atlantic in 2006, the data shows.

And the European Travel Commission (ETC) expects this figure to rise by an additional two to three per cent this year, as growing numbers of US vacationers opt to spend their time in the continent’s historic cities, on its alpine slopes, or Mediterranean beaches.

A swathe of new transatlantic flights and seasonal service upgrades are on the horizon this year and an impending Open Skies agreement is expected to bring more choice, greater competition and lower fares to the world’s most lucrative commercial aviation market.

US secretary of transportation, Mary Peters, said in March that the “historic” pact would “offer more choice and convenience to American consumers, promote new growth in our aviation industry and support our continued economic expansion”.

A selection of new summer services to European capitals such as Madrid, Rome, Brussels Amsterdam, Paris and London from Iberia, Alitalia, US Airways, Northwest Airlines, Air France and MAXjet - among others - are expected make the short hop across the Atlantic all the more appealing to US fliers.

“Traditional destinations like Paris and London are really going through the roof for short breaks,” said ETC chairman Conrad van Tiggelen.