THE sky's the limit for Jet2.com at East Midlands Airport, according to managing director Ian Doubtfire.

The company will begin flights from its new base at the airport on May 19 – to Lanzarote, Corfu, Dalaman, Heraklion, Paphos, Tenerife and Sharm El Sheikh.

It brings more than 200 new jobs – including pilots, engineers and cabin crew as well as airport support staff.

Speaking as the first Jet2.com plane was unveiled at the Castle Donington airport, Mr Doubtfire said this was only the start, with a further two routes to be launched to skiing destinations Chambery and Geneva from December 20 to May 2, 2011.

The company has enjoyed success at six other UK airports, including Manchester and Leeds Bradford.

"It is great to be here," said Mr Doubtfire. "It is an easy base to start off with because of all the support we have had from the airport.

"We are really excited about starting these routes and all the staff are very anxious to get going."

Just one Jet2.com plane, a 229-seat Boeing 757, will be based at the airport initially, making one to two flights a day.

But more could follow if encouraging passenger numbers prompt the company to add new routes.

"The destinations we are serving are mainly long routes, for example Cyprus, Turkey and Sharm El Sheikh, which haven't been served by a low-cost carrier before.

"We are really excited about the East Midlands because it is a well located airport from the motorway.

"We are looking forward to welcoming passengers not only from Notts, Derbyshire and Leicestershire but also further afield because it is an easy airport to get to. Bookings have been strong so far so we are expecting a busy year."

Mr Doubtfire said the addition of the two ski routes showed that the company was keen to bring more choice to East Midlands holidaymakers.

"We are confident that demand for these routes will be immense," he said.

"We are very much focused on leisure travel so we will be coming up with a programme for next year very soon. We serve 125 routes on the network so we will be looking at destinations we already operate from our other bases."

The company, which has a slogan of "friendly low fares", will offer travellers a new kind of experience on their journeys, said Mr Doubtfire.

"Friendly low fares means that you do get a decent baggage allowance of 22kg, you have a nice aeroplane to fly in, you get an allocated seat so you don't have to rush on board to get sat down with your family, and the cabin crew are very highly trained in customer services," he said.

The introduction of Jet2.com to East Midlands comes after Easyjet decided to quit the airport.

However, the three aircraft that were lost have been replaced by the addition of one from Ryanair and two from Bmibaby.

Stephen Turner, commercial director at East Midlands Airport, said: "In terms of our network we don't feel we've lost anybody. The main routes we have managed to safeguard are Barcelona, Geneva and Venice.

"And Jet2.com is bringing a complementary set of new routes that we never had with low-cost airlines before."

"The recession has definitely affected passenger numbers across the UK. They are down by 10%and we are in line with that.

"People's booking behaviour is different. The discretionary weekend breaks seem to be the hardest hit but will come back. We have seen some early signs of that.

"And I am confident with this programme that it should be fairly robust, with people not wanting to forego their summer holidays."

jon.robinson@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk