EUJET, the budget airline serving Kent International Airport, will fly to more destinations next year and has put 1.3m seats up for sale.

Bosses sought to restore confidence in the fledgling airline by announcing investors had injected £30m into PlaneStation, owner of EUJet and KIA.

It announced it is adding Alicante, Ibiza, Seville, Valencia, Belfast, Budapest, Cologne and Newcastle to its network, and would offer 1.3m seats to 26 destinations. The airline has carried 104,000 passengers since its September launch.

Half the new £30m investment will be used to develop the airline and airport, with £12m spent on EUJet and £4.5m in Manston. PlaneStation confirmed it would exercise its option to take full ownership of the airline. The balance will be invested in other parts of PlaneStation’s operations.

But airline chiefs admitted the airline would continue to make losses--estimated at £6m a year--until financial year 2006-2007.

While admitting they had found it harder to promote Manston than they had expected, they were confident it had a good long-term future as an airport for scheduled passenger as well as cargo services.

Recent reports have suggested that the airline might be in trouble, but PlaneStation chief executive Martin May insisted that things were going to plan.

It always took a long time to establish a new airline, and the autumn was not the best time to start a new project like this. He was confident that the airline would break even by 2006-2007.

He said: “EUJet has made a confident start. Finance is now in place for sustained investment in both the expansion EUJet passenger services and the further development of Kent International Airport.

“Our key market advantage lies in combining the strengths of the airport and the airline to offer a distinctive hassle-free alternative for low-fare air travel for Kent and south east London. This advantage will now be used to the full in 2005.”