Passenger numbers soar at Southampton Airport

Airports operator BAA revealed that 1.53m travellers - a rise of 25.7% - flew from the city last year.

Figures show that seven airports, including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, handled 140.1m people in 2004 - a 6.9% increase on 2003.

Airports had a "good" December, despite the Asian tsunami disaster whose impact on traffic was said to be negligible.

Stansted numbers were up 11.7% at 20.9 million, while Gatwick rose 5% to nearly 31.4 million and Heathrow increased 6.2% to 67.1 million.

There was a 6.5% drop in European charter or holiday traffic compared with 2003, but a 9.3% rise in passengers travelling on European scheduled flights.

In Scotland, Edinburgh recorded a 7% rise to almost eight million.