The funding, which brings the commission's total investment in Knock to 1.3m, was agreed at the end of December and will be used to part-fund the development of commercial activities, which are not covered by the state regional airport fund.

At least 2m will be spent in the first half of 2006 on increasing parking spaces by a third and improving restaurant and retail facilities, as Knock positions itself for its goal of having throughput of one million passengers by 2009. A total of 40m in investment is planned for Knock over the next five years.

Last year, Knock carried 530,000 passengers. Of those, 50,000 were charter passengers, representing a 400% increase in two years. At least a 20% increase in passenger traffic is expected this year.

Expansion plans for 2006 include moving to twice-daily flights this summer to Birmingham and Manchester, according to Robert Grealis, director of finance and operations. He said the airport also expects to do a deal on its first scheduled route to Europe, with Paris a likely candidate.

Grealis said Ryanair's new Knock-Luton route is doing well, and probably carried 7,000 passengers in each of November and December.