A LUXURY hotel at Newcastle Airport will open within months, creating more than 100 jobs.

Airport bosses confirmed last night the sale of the 175-bedroom hotel had gone through, signalling the end to a sequence of frustrating setbacks and delays.

The Cairn Group, which owns the Station Hotel in Newcastle and Holiday Inns at Jesmond, Newcastle and Scotch Corner, has taken over the airport site in a deal worth £25m.

An announcement on the operator is due shortly and it is expected a major international brand will run the complex, which will include function and conference facilities.

Planning permission for a hotel at the airport was first granted in 2005 and construction started three years later.

But Tyneside businessman Joe Robertson’s plans to take ownership of the project were scuppered when two British Virgin Islands-registered businesses went into administration.

The Hilton Group had previously been linked to the development, with the worldwide operator keen to build on the success of its Quayside venture in Gateshead.