WINTER sports fanatics in Hampshire are being told to gear up for the skiing season after Southampton Airport announced it would be offering more flights to locations across Europe.

More than 15,000 seats are on offer to visit Geneva and Sion in Switzerland this winter season.

This is on top of flights to other winter destinations including Chambery, Lyon and Munich.

The airport announced two new airlines, easyJet and powdair, would be flying thrillseekers to locations from the Eastleigh site throughout the ski season.

easyJet will commence flights to Geneva, three times a week, from December 14 and powdair, a new airline for ski, will begin flights to Sion four times a week from December 15.

Last year saw the airport offer 8,956 seats to Switzerland, but this year will be increasing its seats to 15,310 - a 70 per cent increase year on year.

Dave Lees, managing director at Southampton Airport, said “We are delighted to be able to offer the region even more choice for reaching the ski slopes this winter.

“The arrival of easyJet to Geneva and powdair to Sion in December, in addition to existing services by Flybe to Chambery, will mean that passengers can reach their favourite ski resorts in even less time from their favourite local airport.”

The flights come just days after it was announcement airline FlyLolo would begin flying to the Greek island of Skiathos, made famous by the hit movie Mamma Mia, from July.

Flights will run from Southampton every Tuesday for 14 weeks until October 2 next year.