A RECORD 1.55 million passengers took off from Southampton International Airport in the last year, a rise of 12.9 per cent.

There were a total of 37,962 flights in and out of Southampton recorded for 2004/05, up 8.3 per cent on the previous year.

While the airport's parent company, the British Airports Authority, was toasting both the figures and an 18.1 per cent rise in profits to £521m in the nine months to December 31 - residents' groups expressed surprise and dismay at the prospect of a summer plagued by aircraft noise.

Southampton is now the fastest growing airport in the BAA group, which also owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.

A total of 132,000 passengers flew out of Southampton during March 2005, an increase of 11.7 per cent against the same period last year. Air Transport Movements totalled 3,317 for March 2005, up by 8.7 per cent.

The figures represent a welcome fillip for BAA, which in common with other aviation industry players has been recovering from the setbacks of Sars, the Iraq war and terrorism in previous years.

For Mary Finch, of the Airport Pressure Group, it was bad news.

"My first reaction is that this is not good for local residents, not very good at all," she said. "It surprises me that it has gone up so much in such a short time. One hopes the figures will level off.

"We are left with the same difficulties of low flights, noisy flights and late flights. We have to see what it is going to be like in the full swing of summer when we have the full onslaught of these new routes."

Southampton Airport managing director David Cumming said: "We are very pleased with our year-end traffic figures showing our growth continuing steadily.

"We are very proud of achievements during the last 12 months. The airport has received three major awards - 'KPMG Hampshire Company of the Year', ' Airport of the Year Award - European Regions Airline Association ' and 'Top UK Airport - Wanderlust Travel Magazine'.

"Our route network is stronger than ever before. During 2005, we will be operating to 40 destinations in 12 countries.

"Southampton Airport is a key contributor to the economic prosperity of this region."