Low-cost airline JetBlue Airways is coming to Bermuda after five years of wooing by the Government.

The fast-growing American company has been a target since 2001 in the expectation that its low cost tickets will entice more visitors to the Island and break the stranglehold of higher-cost carriers.

Just two weeks after Bermuda?s Hollywood couple Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones attended a reception with JetBlue officials at the Grotto Bay Hotel to boost the allure of Bermuda to the airline, the company confirmed it intends to start twice-daily flights to the Island from New York this May.

Making the announcement, Deputy Premier and Tourism Minister Dr. Ewart Brown also revealed another low-cost airline, Spirit Airlines, intends to start all-year round daily flights to the Island from New York?s LaGuardia Airport and Detroit.

And twice-weekly charter flights costing $49 for a round-trip from New York and Boston will be offered to North American visitors between February and April.

Although these cheap flights will not be available for outward bound Bermuda travellers, they will provide more than 8,000 seats to Bermuda during the ?off-season?. The charter flights are being offered by US-based TNT Vacations.

Revealing the news on the JetBlue, Spirit and TNT flight initiatives, Dr. Brown also mentioned soon to start daily British Airways flights from London between March and October.

A new flight service from Munich will also start in June subject to approval by the governments of Germany and the UK.

But it was the JetBlue announcement that attracted the loudest applause at a tourism luncheon in the Hamilton Princess Hotel. Dr. Brown said: ?It is my belief that in 2006 we will eliminate high airfares as a barrier.?

JetBlue Airways will fly two daily non-stop flights from New York?s JFK to Bermuda from May, pending approval from US authorities. The company filed for the right to operate the route at noon yesterday.

Todd Burke, vice president of corporate communications of JetBlue Airways, said it should take two to three weeks for the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to approve the flights.

?I do not see any reason why the DOT would not want to give its nod and we hope the Bermuda Government will say so too,? Mr. Burke said. ?We have filed the same thing twice before with Dominican Republic and the Bahamas and we now fly there.?

He said the airline wanted to keep the announcement ?low-key? because it could not sell tickets yet.

?Once we are given the nod we will release fares and scheduling,? Mr. Burke said, adding that permission is also being sought from the UK?s Civil Aviation Authority.

The Embraer 190 ? with a single-class configuration of 100 seats ? will be used on the Bermuda runs not the 77 Airbus A320 aircraft JetBlue uses on other routes.

?JetBlue Airways, New York?s hometown airline, requested authority from the US Department of Transportation to provide international non-stop service to Bermuda. Pending approval from both Governments, the proposed service from John F. Kennedy International Airport would operate with two daily non-stop flights to Bermuda, planned to begin May, 2006,? an airline release said.