GILL Airways has flown through another hurdle on the road to financial recovery.

Last night the airline announced its best sales figures of the year.

Sales on the Air France franchise service from Newcastle to Paris are heading for an all-time monthly record in June, with the figure expected to top 10,000 for the first time.

Across all services, more than 8,500 seats were sold in the week to June 15 - almost 2,000 up on the previous week. June sales to date are already 1,400 up on May - itself a record.

The airline says the buoyant trade is due to growing customer confidence following improvements in punctuality and reliability.

It says improvements are due to its decision to withdraw from unprofitable activities to concentrate on its core business.

That decision saw travellers from Teesside Airport abandoned when the airline cut its Teesside to Paris service in February, forcing local passengers to go to Newcastle for the French link.

Gill called in administrators in February to gain breathing space as it sorted out its financial difficulties.

Officials immediately axed several services which weren't making enough money, including the Air France franchise service from Teesside.

It has been focusing on its core business of the Air France partnership, its own scheduled services from Newcastle, East coast routes to Aberdeen and night-time operations for Royal Mail.

Malcolm Naylor, chief executive, said: "We are now recording stronger sales than we were when we were operating more routes. That in itself is a vindication of our decision to build the airline from a strong core of key routes rather than spreading our resources more thinly.

"We remain on course to meet the administrators' desired objective of a return to full independence in the Autumn."