Southampton International's continued success as one of Europe's fastest growing airports is underlined in the latest set of route and passenger figures released from last year.

The details point to more and more passengers turning their backs on the traditional London gateways and, instead, choosing Southampton for their domestic and overseas air travel.

Comparing December 2000 with the same period the previous year, there was a 24 per cent increase in passengers on domestic services and a 39 per cent growth in customers for flights to Europe and beyond, using the hubs of Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Frankfurt and Dublin.

The BAA-owned airport handled a total of 855,000 passengers in the last 12 months, representing a 13.9 per cent rise over 1999.

Figures were bolstered by additional frequent flights to Amsterdam, Paris, Newcastle and Dublin, and the introduction of a new route to Frankfurt.

They also reflected a buoyant last quarter in 2000, when the airport saw many new passengers on its domestic network for the first time. Disruptions on railways contributed to a 16.5 per cent increase in passengers during the last month of the year.

Colin Hobbs, the airport's managing director, said: "The year 2000 was a particularly good one for us and our partner airlines. During the latter part of the year, we were delighted to see many new passengers opting for air travel over rail, and we like to think they will become regulars with us.

"With increasing traffic from the business and corporate aviation community, we expect even greater things for 2001 and are actively pursuing routes to Munich, Milan and Copenhagen, which would further strengthen Southampton Airport's position as a mini-hub.''

British regional airlines carried almost half a million passengers through its Southampton operation to ten destinations.

Five of these routes now support Embraer 145 jet services, alongside Manx Airlines' flights to the Isle of Man.

The airline, British Airways' largest franchise partner, recently inaugurated self-service check-in facilities at Southampton Airport.

Air France services to Paris Charles de Gaulle experienced a 48 per cent rise in traffic with the same period last year.

Brit Air, flying as Air France, will be further enhancing the route with the introduction of the largest ATR-72 variants this summer.

Brymon Airways, the 100 per cent owned British Airways franchisee, continued to show strong growth.

During 2000, the airline saw a 70 per cent year-on-year increase in passengers flying through Southampton to Newcastle, while in December, the route - with its onward connection to Aberdeen - experienced a bumper 118 per cent rise compared with the same period the previous year.

Scot Airways raised the number of its daily services to Amsterdam from three to five and the airline is now in the early stages of studying the use of larger aircraft on the route to cope with demand.

Last year, Aurigny Air Services carried more than 30,000 passengers on its scheduled Southampton to Alderney flights.

Looking ahead to the summer, Thomson - the country's largest tour operator - has added flights to Alicante and Malaga to its list of Southampton departures, which also includes Ibiza, Majorca and Menorca.

Services operated by Britannia with Boeing 757s and Air Europa 737s are also flying customers out to meet Thomson's two Mediterranean cruise ships, Emerald and Topaz, both operating out of Palma in Majorca.