MANSTON-based budget airline EUJet has launched its first TV advertising campaign.

The campaign will be aired on Meridian South East over the coming months.

The 10 and 30 second adverts feature the voice of Radio 2 presenter Ken Bruce and were filmed by Kent company Scheuregger Productions.

The campaign, designed to appeal to Kent’s holiday makers, people with second homes in Europe and business travellers, marks an all out marketing drive by the airline, which has invested in bus adverts to accompany the TV adverts and existing radio advertising.

Speaking exclusively to the Kent Messenger Group, EUJet commercial director Stuart McGoldrick said that after six months of flying from Thanet the airline wanted to put itself on a par with the big airports.

"What I really hope for the airport and airline in the future is a bit of credibility. I want people to look on us as a genuine threat to the other larger airports in the South East," he said.

The airline has kept the advertising purely Kentish by appointing a Medway advertising agency to create the campaign. Zest communications in Lordswood scripted and produced the TV commercials.

The director of advertising at Zest, Terry Hewitt, said: "We’re delighted to be developing their first TV campaign and to be working on a brand that aims to become a household name in Kent and the surrounding regions.

"We can identify perfectly with the airline’s proposition as we’ve all suffered for years the significant cost and stress of getting to Gatwick, Heathrow or Stansted for what should have been a low-cost trip."

Meanwhile, London Ashford Airport has appointed PR agency Edwards Harvey to steer its promotion of Lydd Airport.

Bosses at the airport in the south of the county plan to develop its capacity as a passenger airport to two million travellers by 2014.

More than £5m has already been spent on its runway and facilities and the owners have plans for a new terminal building and runway expansion.

But they will have to appease some residents in the area who are opposed to the expansion.