Continental Airlines will begin service next year

An American airline has confirmed it is to begin a regular direct service from Belfast to New York.

The US based airline Continental has announced that it is to begin direct flights between Belfast International Airport and Newark airport near New York.

The service will operate daily during the summer and four times a week during the winter.

On Thursday, the airline said the new service would provide easier and faster travel options for travellers between Northern Ireland and the US.

The managing director of Belfast International, Albert Harrison, said the service was great news for both business and tourism in Northern Ireland.

The service begins on 27 May 2005.

In September, BBC Northern Ireland's business editor, James Kerr, said it was a "badly kept secret" that management at Belfast International and Continental had been in talks for months.

The service will receive start-up grant aid from the government's air route development fund.

It has also played a part in some of the other international routes that have come on stream in recent months.

European air routes

There are now seven such scheduled destinations from Belfast International - with only a limited number of further routes that are likely to prove viable.

Continental Airlines operates daily flights from Edinburgh to New York.

It also operates a direct route from Dublin to New York.

In September 2001, Irish airline Aer Lingus dropped the Belfast/Shannon leg of its New York service from Belfast International Airport.

The airline said the move was part of a cost cutting programme following the terrorist attacks in America earlier that month.

In March this year, four new direct European air routes out of Belfast were announced.