Airport celebrates busiest year

Last year was the busiest in the airport's 97-year history

A record-breaking number of passengers passed through Southampton Airport during the past year, BAA says.

The Eastleigh-based airport, which serves 47 destinations, welcomed 1.9m visitors, an increase of 4.1%.

Chris Butler, managing director, said: "2007 promises to be another exciting year and we aim to pass the two million passenger milestone."

Airport campaigners said the increased pollution and noise caused by growing passenger numbers was not welcomed.

New routes

Mary Finch, of Against Expansion at Eastleigh, told BBC News: "We're against any expansion, more so now because of the environmental and the global warming situation.

"I speak for people who live all around the airport - it's not good for us, the noise, the pollution."

Guernsey and Jersey are among the top five most popular routes served by the airport and new routes for this year include Nice and Verona.

In November, airport bosses unveiled a long-term strategy which is predicted to see passenger numbers quadruple over the next 25 years.