AN airline did not rule out adding regular long haul flights to its North-East schedules as it announced 100 additional jobs for the region's largest airport.

Jet2. com yesterday said the roles ranged from cabin crew to ground staff as it introduced four new European routes from Newcastle Airport.

The flights to Rome, Venice, Bodrum in Turkey and Reus in Spain from May next year takes the number of routes the airline runs from Newcastle to 27 and will see an additional sixth plane based at the airport.

Jet2. commanaging director Ian Doubtfire said he wanted to establish the airline as the North-East's biggest leisure carrier and did not rule out introducing more regular longhaul flights in the future after the success of festive shopping flights from Newcastle to New York over the past two years.

He said: "We did it last year, we did it this year, we will always look at opportunities.

"We do it at this time of year because we have availability with the aircraft.

"It is a balance, but if there are opportunities to do it at other times of the year we will look at it."

With regard to yesterday's jobs announcement, Mr Doubtfire said: "We will be offering lots of different jobs - pilots, cabin crew, engineers and ground staff.

"Newcastle is important for us. We have 600 cabin crew and train 60 per cent at Newcastle College. We have found a close affinity with Newcastle and the North-East."

Jet2, which started flying from Newcastle five years ago enjoyed a record summer at the airport, carrying 500,000 passengers, a 56 per cent increase on last year.

Mr Doubtfire said: "We have had a good 2011, people seem to like what we are doing.

"What it comes down to is providing the right product, in the right place, to the right destinations."

Newcastle Airport chief executive Dave Laws said: "I think it is fantastic for the region at a time when people are talking about cutbacks.

"The jobs that will be created are good, safe jobs because the destinations we have introduced are needed for the region, we currently don't have them and passengers from the region have been travelling to fly to them from other airports. It is a great coup.

"Our relationship with Jet2 gets stronger and stronger.

For them to expand again shows trust and confidence between the businesses.

"We are an airport that does alot of research and we try to pick winners."

More than 3,000 staff work at the airport, which carries about 4.5million passengers a year and it supports a further 5,000 jobs in the region.

Leeds Bradford Airport yesterday announced the start of work on an £11m terminal expansion project, creating a new departure lounge, extra food facilities and new Duty Free store.