KENT County Council pressed ahead with its failed flights plan to America despite missing key deadlines that consultants said were vital to the scheme’s success.

Documents released to the Kent Messenger Group have revealed how county council chiefs were told tickets for the the weekly charter service from Kent International Airport at Manston to Virginia should go on sale “at least a year” before the launch.

In fact, a series of delays meant tickets only went on sale just seven months before the service was due to get underway.

The documents, released in response to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act, also show that KCC knew last year its financial stake in the project could be as much as £400,000 and that on-going delays meant that Cosmos, the airline operator, was unable to promote the service in its holiday brochures when it wanted to.

The revelations that KCC appeared willing to push ahead in the face of expert advice about deadlines come after it admitted nearly £300,000 of public money was ploughed into the project.

The first warning KCC was given about ensuring enough time was given to launch the service came in July 2005.

Consultants Freudmann Tipple, who were commisioned by KCC to produce a feasibility study, recommended to regeneration chief Peter Raine that “a charter programme be finalised, announced and advertised at least 12 months before its is due to begin.”

As it turned out, the direct flights plan was only formally announced in September by operator Cosmos.

But that was not the only time Freudmann Tipple advised KCC about giving the flights plan what they described as a long lead-in time.

When the consultants presented their final report to KCC, which itself was five months overdue, it re-iterated the charter service would only work “if a long lead-in time is allowed - ideally, these seats should go on sale no later than the end of April 2006.”

But an annex to the same report recommended an even earlier starting date for ticket sales, saying “tickets should go on sale no later than mid-Feb 2006.”

Consultants also warned that any slippage in drawing up plans for the service beyond September 2005 would “seriously threaten the commercial viability of charter programme.”

The Kent Messenger Group asked KCC why it had pressed ahead with its plans despite the fact deadlines recommended by its own consultants had not been met.

In a statement, the county council said: “In any project, there is bound to be some slippage. At every stage, KCC consulted with other stakeholders, including Cosmos, and the consultants. The most crucial time point was to launch in September 2006 with the Cosmos brochure and Cosmos, as the principal contractor, were entirely happy with the time scale, which was important bearing in mind their own reputation in the holiday trade.”

On the issue of why its financial stake was not made clear at the time the scheme was ditched, the council said: “Any figure put in the public domain must be correct and therefore time was spent on checking these before the full financial picture and all other information was made public.”