The duo have struck a £5.7m deal with Bank of Scotland Growth Equity, which gets a 7.5% stake in Zoom UK, which will fly longer-haul routes from London to the US and Mexico.

The Boyles set up Zoom in 2002 after the sale of their firm Direct Holidays to Airtours for £84m. The Ottawa-based airline operates flights between Scotland and Canada, offering a return flight from Glasgow to Toronto for £350 compared with Air Canada's price tag north of £800.

Since 2002 passenger growth has been 33% a year.

Last night John Boyle said: "The investment by the Bank of Scotland will assist in setting up Zoom UK, which will enable us to expand our operations from the UK to non-Canadian destinations. This is a red letter day for the airline which bodes well for our future prospects.

"For Bank of Scotland to take an equity stake in our airline is a tremendous vote of confidence in the success of Zoom which, for the past three years, has pioneered the low fares concept on a transatlantic basis between six European airports and seven Canadian destinations."

David Wilson, director of Bank of Scotland Growth Equity, who negotiated the deal, said: "It is an exceptional growth opportunity and we are delighted to have made an investment in the company and to assist in its long-term profitable expansion."

John Boyle, the former chairman of Motherwell FC, runs a business empire stretching from tiny technology companies to commercial property.

With his brother Hugh he launched Direct Holidays in the early 1990s and built it into one of the UK's leading direct-sell holiday companies.

TYCOON FIGHTS ONLINE PREDATORS WITH CHILD ID STAKE

JOHN Boyle has also taken a stake in a company which has developed a virtual identity card to protect children from online predators, writes Douglas Friedli.

Boyle will invest £750,000 in NetIDMe, run by former Motherwell Bridge project manager Alex Hewitt, through his Hamilton Portfolio investment vehicle.

Hewitt last week launched a software device which reveals the age and identity of internet chatroom users. He developed the gadget after discovering that his daughter could verify the age and identity of fewer than 50 out of 150 of her regular online correspondents.

The deal will give Hamilton Portfolio a 27% stake in the East Kilbride company, leaving Hewitt with about 65%. Hewitt was introduced to Boyle by Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire.

Stewart Robertson, a director of Hamilton Portfolio and secretary of Motherwell Football Club, will join NetIDMe's board. He will be joined as a non-executive director by Andrew Lloyd, former vice-president of security at IT group Computer Associates and CEO of software firm Pivotal Integration.

Hewitt said he expected to sell at least 100,000 copies of his product, also called NetIDMe, over the coming year, at £9.99 each. He added: "We are in discussions with some of the larger social networking and chat sites about helping them."

Hewitt formerly managed the health and safety software division of Motherwell Bridge, the engineering group. He led a management buyout of the group which was renamed Lexware International and grew to employ 40 programmers and sales staff when it was bought by AEA Technology in 2003.

He set up NetIDMe in East Kilbride in 2004, and has since opened offices on Toronto, New York, San Francisco and Sydney.

Young people apply for the ID with their parents' permission, and get adults to pay the annual fee. NetIDMe then verifies the child's age with a professional such as a doctor or teacher who knows them, or an application form is stamped by the child's school.

They can then share their cards online, proving their ages when using instant messaging systems which have become notorious as a hunting ground for paedophiles.