AIRLINE Emirates has carried its 100,000th passenger on its service between Newcastle Airport and Dubai.

Businessman Michael Reay, a director of North-East company Equine Products, was the lucky passenger and received a prize of two economy class return tickets for use between the two destinations.

Mr Reay, originally from Hexham, uses the service to travel between the company's Newcastle headquarters and the Middle East, an important sales territory.

He said: "Before the arrival of the Emirates service, I had the hassle of taking connecting flights via Heathrow or Paris.

"Now, I can travel direct from the North-East to the Middle East and beyond, and I've already flown over 100,000 miles with Emirates since the service started."

Laurie Berryman, Emirates' manager UK North, said: "We are thrilled to be reaching this milestone in our Newcastle service so quickly, and several weeks ahead of what we had forecast.

"The demand for Emirates' service from Newcastle has exceeded our expectations, and travellers from the region are clearly taking advantage of our network to fly to Dubai and beyond."

The daily non-stop service to Dubai, which began in September last year, offers passengers onward connections to a network that includes 99 destinations on six continents.

Destinations that have proved popular with North- East travellers using the service include Bangkok, Sydney, Perth and the Maldives, along with Dubai itself.