THE newly-renamed Durham Tees Valley Airport could be operating flights to Paris and Berlin soon if talks being held this weekend are successful.

Airport bosses hoping to increase the number of destinations from the region are to hold talks with airlines.

Representatives from airlines and travel companies, including Thomas Cook, attended the renaming of the former Teesside International Airport on Tuesday to view its multi-million pound expansion plans.

This weekend, Hugh Lang, the managing director of the airport, will attend a conference in Spain to discuss possible new routes with airlines.

Mr Lang said that he had arranged talks with 35 airlines at the conference in Madrid and hoped to introduce destinations to mainland Europe, including France, Germany, Spain and Scandanavia.

He said the name change was only one part of the plans for the airport, which included up to £40m being invested in a terminal, business park and cargo village for freight flights.

It is hoped the airport will see an increase in passengers from 700,000 to three million by 2015.

Mr Lang said nearly 1,000 jobs were created directly for each one million extra passengers, with another 2,000 in spin-off jobs in catering, or transport.