The number of people using Southampton airport fell last year, according to figures out today.

The airport is among seven run by the BAA company, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, which handled 145.8 million passengers in 2008 - a drop of 2.8% compared with 2007.

At 66.9 million, the number of passengers using Heathrow Airport last year was down 1.4%, while Gatwick dipped 2.8% and Stansted fell 6.0%.

The Government is due this month to decide whether to give the go-ahead to expansion at Heathrow in the form of a third runway and a sixth terminal.

Expansion would increase the number of air transport movements (take-off and landings) from around 480,000 a year to 702,000.

Today, BAA announced that air traffic movements at Heathrow had dipped by 0.5% in 2008 to a total of 473,139.

There was a fall in passenger numbers last year at all four of BAA's other UK airports, with Southampton down 0.8%, Glasgow dipping 6.8%, Edinburgh declining 0.5% and Aberdeen going down 3.5%.

The figures for December alone showed that the seven airports handled 10.18 million passengers - 6.9% down on the December 2007 total.

Heathrow numbers last month were down only 2.3%, but Gatwick passenger numbers fell 13.8%, while Stansted was down 13.0%, Southampton fell 5.4%, Glasgow decreased 10.7%, Edinburgh was down 2,5% and Aberdeen declined 3.2%.

In the individual sectors, the biggest passenger fall last year was on European and North African charter routes which were down 7.4% compared with 2007.

All other sectors fell , too, with the UK and Channel Islands' traffic dropping 5.9%.

Taking December alone, the biggest fall was on European and North African charter flights where passenger numbers plunged 21.6%.

Air transport movements for December were down 5.8% compared with December 2007, while movements for the whole of 2008 were down 2.4% compared with 2007.

BAA said today: ''We expect, on the evidence of historic economic downturns and the resulting effect on air traffic, that the long-term prospects for growth remain good and that passenger volumes will recover in due course.''