MORE than 1,000 jobs will be created when low-cost airline Flybe launches 12 new routes from Southampton Airport next year, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Vacancies will be created in a whole range of areas to service the extra one million passengers predicted to use the hundreds of new flights.

Taxi firms and catering suppliers are among the scores of local firms likely to benefit.

About 1,000 people currently work at the airport, and a further 500 are employed with linked businesses.

Flybe has ordered five Brazilian-built Embraer 195 planes, which each seat 118 passengers, at a cost of £550m.

The company is planning to start flying 12 additional routes from Southampton by August 2006, although a spokesman was unable to say exactly how many extra flights there would be.

Mike Rutter, marketing and sales director for Flybe, which currently runs flights to 21 destinations, said: "With an extra one million passengers using the airport, there will be a major impact on employment in the region as a predicted 1,000 more jobs will be created.

"The 118-seater planes were chosen for their ability to travel further so we will be able to take passengers as far as Cyprus and North Africa with destinations across the Mediterranean and the Balkans, also for lower prices.

"The planes are also much quieter than other commercial jets and so they will have less of an impact on local people."

In April this year, the Daily Echo reported how Southampton Airport had seen passenger numbers take off to a record 1.53 million.

Flybe's announcement will take that number to more than 2.5m.

Jimmy Chestnutt, director general of the Southampton and Fareham Chamber of Commerce, was delighted with the jobs boost.

He said: "This is extremely good news for the region. Such a large increase in employment opportunities will provide a major boost to the local economy as well as providing further opportunities for local businesses to extend into other markets."

Yesterday's announcement has worried campaigners who say the present number of flights is already too high.

Mary Finch, of Bitterne Park Residents' Association, lives under the airport's flightpath in Halstead Road and is a member of the Southampton Airport Consultative Committee.

"People are already concerned about the number of aircraft at the moment and this announcement is not something that they want to hear," she said.

"It's a very worrying situation if their prediction of more passengers is right."

She added: "It's not something that local people want. In the beginning we were told this airport was not going to be another Gatwick or Heathrow, but it looks as if it is going that way."

David Cumming, managing director of Southampton Airport, said: "We are pleased that Flybe has taken environmental impacts into consideration when choosing the new Embraer 195 aircraft."

"We expect Flybe to carry around

1.5 million passengers to and from Southampton Airport in this financial year and we are having ongoing discussions with the airline about new route opportunities."