The latest airline to establish a base in Ireland, Virgin Express, will decide within a fortnight where it will set up in Dublin, Cork, or Shannon, company executives have said. Mr Don Monteath, chief operating officer of the Brussels-based low cost carrier, told The Irish Times that all three airports were being regarded as potentials and "a lot of resources are going into site evaluations".

However, the decision seems to have come down to a two-horse race between Dublin and Shannon. Within the aviation industry, Shannon is emerging as the favoured location with its "Free Zone" trade status, its transatlantic links and an attractive package being put forward by local Aer Rianta representatives.

Virgin Express would be expected to offer an early morning link to London, but it has added attractiveness in offering the regional airport a much-needed European corridor. One industry source said that he would be very surprised if Shannon did not win out. Virgin Express, in which the entrepreneur, Mr Richard Branson, maintains a majority stake, offers a non-smoking, single class service, with a fleet of Boeing 737s to major cities within the EU.

Mr Paul Skellon, director of corporate affairs, said a decision was likely at a scheduled board meeting in the first week of September. Shannon was "bidding like crazy", he said, and offering "interesting rentals". While Dublin has an obvious attractiveness as the capital city, Mr Skellon said the airport was "bursting at the seams at the moment".

"Until such time as they have done their next phase of development, they are not enticing new companies to come there," he said. "We have growth plans and those growth plans will be done out of Ireland," he said.