Aer Rianta Shannon's plans to establish additional routes to the UK and Europe this year suffered a blow yesterday with the collapse of UK-based airline, Duo Airlines.

Last month, Duo Airlines executives announced the launch of new services from Shannon to Edinburgh and Birmingham with one-stop service to Berlin from June 1st next. However, the company collapsed at the weekend due to a failure to secure additional capital to keep the company operating after poor trading in March.

Mr Bill Dawson, partner at Deloitte, has been appointed joint administrator of the company. He said yesterday: "There was a real prospect that Duo could find these funds to support its growing booking levels but, although the board worked hard to achieve this, unfortunately the additional investments did not come through in time. We will be working hard with the management and authorities to help to communicate the situation to customers and employees."

Offering "business class service at economy prices" , Duo Airlines operated a fleet of seven aircraft, flying to Northern Europe and Scandinavia from Birmingham and Edinburgh airports and the company's closure will result in the lose of 300 jobs in Birmingham.

At Shannon it was proposing to provide a daily service to Edinburgh and 12 flights per week to Birmingham, with onward connections to Berlin. Last year, Shannon lagged behind Dublin and Cork airports in passenger growth and the arrival of Duo was welcomed by the business community in the Midwest who have been campaigning for better "connectivity" from Shannon to UK and Continental destinations.

A statement from Aer Rianta said yesterday it "deeply regretted" that Duo had ceased trading. Mr Martin Moroney, a director of the airport, said FlyBe will continue to operate daily services to Birmingham. "We will continue to work hard to secure a replacement carrier for the Edinburgh route to further add to the growth in terminal traffic which the airport is experiencing this year," he said.