Inverness Airport has been the fastest growing in the region

The 10 airports operated by Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (HIAL) handled more than one million passengers in the past 11 months.

That represented a 13% increase on the same period in 2004/05.

HIAL, owned by the Scottish Executive, is now on target to exceed its previous record of 1.6m passengers, which was set in 1995/96.

The fastest growing airport in the region, based on performance to the end of February, was Inverness, which increased by 17%.

Benbecula was up 9%, Sumburgh and Tiree have both seen 16% rises and Wick's passenger numbers have jumped by 10%.

'Remote communities'

Inglis Lyon, HIAL's managing director, said: "This is a very exciting time for aviation in the region with many new developments on the horizon.

"The importance of air services to remote communities is reflected in the year on year growth in passengers at our airports since 1999 and there is still great demand for new services and increased frequencies."

The new figures have shown that in February, more than 83,000 passengers travelled through the airports, 22% more than last year.

The start of the new Dublin-Inverness, Inverness-Leeds Bradford and Sumburgh-Stansted services are expected to further increase passenger numbers in 2006/07.