Southampton is taking off for the sun, sea and sand of the Mediterranean as a major UK holiday company begins flights from the city's international airport.

The rapidly growing airport is already the south's number one gateway for the region's business community and now buckets and spades and bulging family luggage will be just as a familiar a sight as briefcases in the terminal.

In just two years the number of people passing through the airport has leapt from 750,967 in 1999 to a total of 857,299 last year.

Majorca was the first destination for Airtours' flights when 142 passengers left for the holiday island signalling a significant boost in the number of services from Southampton.

Other holiday routes will include Malta and Tenerife together with the winter skiing destination of Geneva while next year Malaga on Spain's Costa Del Sol and Costa Blanca's Alicante will be added to the Airtours' schedule.

Airtours, part of the new brand MyTravel Group, is the latest carrier to use Southampton and joins other holiday package operators, Thomson and JMC at the airport. Holidaymakers can also fly on weekly summer services to the islands of Ibiza and Minorca from Southampton.

Bill McGrorty, aviation director for MyTravel Group, said; "We understand the importance of regional airports and we are committed to make holidaying abroad as convenient as possible for all our customers, and that includes introducing our most popular destinations from departure points such as Southampton.

"This is the 22nd regional UK airport we operate from and will prove to be a great new base for our customers on the south coast. We are confident that this initial programme is just the start of things to come.''

The arrival of Airtours is the latest good news for the airport as last month the Irish airline, Aer Arann also added its name to the list of companies now using Southampton with the announcement of flights to and from Cork. Southampton International has always said it will never have a large charter flight programme but the strategy is to build limited holiday services for local people.