THE scale of the travel nightmare caused by the Icelandic volcano for passengers at Southampton Airport has been revealed by new figures showing 45,000 people had to abandon their flights.

Traveller numbers for the month plummeted by almost a fifth, costing the airport an estimated £50,000 a day. In total, Southampton Airport owner BAA estimated that it dealt with 1.9 million fewer passengers at its UK sites as a direct result of the ash cloud. The company, which is owned by Spain's Ferrovial, revealed at the end of last month that the closure of Heathrow and Stansted alone had cost it £28m.

The chaos, which left people stranded across Europe was caused by an eruption at Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, pictured, which spewed ash into the air and closed UK airspace for six days in April. Services elsewhere in Europe are still being affected.

A spokesman for Southampton Airport said: “In the month of April, Southampton Airport welcomed 121,278 passengers, representing a 19.4 per cent decrease on the same month in 2009. This is due to the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, which closed UK airspace for several days. This is estimated to have resulted in the loss of 45,000 passengers.

“In February and March of this year, Southampton Airport consistently experienced more than a 5 per cent increase in passenger numbers compared with 2009, making Southampton one of the best performing regional airports in the south during these months.”