DIRECT flights between Kent and the United States, due to take off in May, appeared to be in doubt today (Wednesday).

The shock emerged last night after high level members of Kent County Council reluctantly turned down a request for financial guarantees from the travel firms planning to run the new service.

It is understood that not enough people had booked seats on the weekly flights between Kent International Airport at Manston and Norfolk International Airport, Virginia, to make the service viable.

Cllr Alex King, deputy KCC leader and the driving force behind developing links between the county and Virginia, expressed bitter disappointment.

He told me last night: "We found that the sales so far meant that the potential losses were too great for the county council to underwrite.

"We are deeply grateful to the efforts of our partners but at the end of the day in a year when the budget is difficult the potential cost could not be justified."

KCC, already scarred by the collapse of EUjet nearly two years ago and the loss of £100,000, is likely to lose another six-figure sum already invested in the ill-fated project.

It remains to be seen if the project is completely scuppered or if the travel firms involved, Bromley-based Cosmos and Monarch Airlines, are able to find an alternative rescue plan.

Cllr King added that the decision would not diminish efforts to create and continue educational, social and business relationships between Kent and Virginia.

The weekly service would have launched on May 2, with flights throughout the summer.

Cosmos unveiled a glossy flights and holidays brochure last autumn but it seems it did not convince enough people to book, although more British travellers than Americans are thought to have made reservations because of the weakness of the dollar.

The flights were to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, by English settlers, including some from Kent.