easyJet has begun a Europe-wide "beauty parade" for new airports to fly to.

It said adverts have been placed in national newspapers throughout Europe asking airports to tender for its business.

easyJet, which currently flies 105 routes between 38 European airports, stressed it applies "strict criteria" to its airport development, said the report on the Ample website.

In a clear dig at arch rival Ryanair Holdings PLC, the airline said it is "not looking for irrelevant airstrips miles from anywhere -- we only want airports prepared to offer easy-to-use facilities with good access to a large, attractive population."

easyJet wants potential airport customers to pursue a self-selection process by checking they conform to criteria set out on the airline's website.

Dilemma

"There are numerous opportunities for growth in Europe and at any one time we are always talking to scores of airports. Our only dilemma is narrowing down the mountain of opportunities to the one or two airports that we will select each year," said easyJet chief executive Ray Webster at the ACI Europe annual conference.

"In line with the way we run all aspects of our business, we have decided to be open with our requirements rather than doing everything behind closed-doors.

"By applying very strict criteria, we are essentially outsourcing the selection process to the airports themselves. Airports that don't conform to our requirements will not be considered in our beauty parade."

An easyJet spokeswoman added that the search is primarily focused on new destinations for next winter and summer, but did not rule out the airline adding another continental European base to its existing three of Paris, Amsterdam and Geneva.

...any tips/suggestions/ideas on where???