Aer Lingus Chief Executive Dermot Mannion said it was "all systems go" for the launch of the airline's new hub at Belfast International Airport in early December after pilots lifted the threat of strike action over pay and conditions and agreed to co-operate with the opening.

The airline has announced eight routes to be rolled out over the following weeks - and Mr Mannion said a ninth was already being added to the list.

Flights to Nice in the south of France will be added to their schedules in April and more could follow, he said.

Holding out the prospect of a fares war, he said: "There will be competition on virtually every route we enter. Aer Lingus performs very well in competition, that is what we do best.

"We are head to head with Ryanair on virtually all our routes out of Ireland and are not afraid of the competition.

"I think it is going to be very competitive out of Belfast and it is going to be a good proposition for the Northern Ireland customer."

Aer Lingus plans to carry some 500,000 passengers to and from Belfast in the next year and that will push the International Airport's numbers through the 6,000,000 mark for the first time.

The landmark will be met at least a year earlier than envisaged in its master plan released last year.

It is a huge turnaround for a province which just a few short years ago had not a single scheduled route to a destination outside the UK.

The new political dispensation and increasing prosperity has seen an explosion of routes with budget airlines easyJet, and Jet2 in competition and Ryanair joining the fray at the end of this month from the George Best Belfast City Airport - although initially only with routes within the UK.

December 10 sees the start of Aer Lingus services with flights to Amsterdam - where it will be in competition with easyJet. In the weeks that follow routes will be added to Barcelona, Budapest, Faro, Geneva, London Heathrow, Malaga, Rome and now Nice