THREATS to air passenger safety will not ground plans for flights betwen Kent and the United States, according to an aviation expert.

The latest alleged terrorist plot to blow up aircraft between the UK and the United States has raised fears for the new weekly service.

The new service is due to launch next May between Kent International Airport and Norfolk Virginia.

The charter service, to be operated by Monarch Airlines and promoted by Bromley-based Cosmos, has capacity for around 300 people in each direction every week between May and October.

Tony Freudmann, an aviation expert who helped set up the deal, is confident that the latest crisis will not upset their plans.

Whilst admitting that security was always a concern for Americans and Kent air passengers, Manston had security standards as high as any other UK airport.

"Processing 300 people for one flight, however careful and painstakingly it is done, is going to produce far less delay than processing people from hundreds of flights out of Gatwick or Heathrow," he said.

"Whilst it might cause a delay and one doesn’t want to sound complacent but I would be surprised if our flights caused an extra hour of delay maximum.

"I would be much more pessimistic if we’d been promoting this flight out of Gatwick. One of the selling points, irrespective of the latest news, is the experience out of Manston is much more pleasant.

"The security and alerts that are occurring at other airports are less likely to inconvenience passengers at Manston."