Southampton's low cost airline flybe. signed a record order worth $818m for a fleet of new aircraft today.

The contract, which is the world's largest aircraft deal so far this year, will be a major boost to flybe.'s operations in and out of the city's airport.

Set to carry 900,000 passengers on its Southampton routes in the next 12 months, flybe. clinched the contract with Bombardier Aerospace of Canada for 17 firm orders and a further 20 options for the 78-seater turboprop Q400 aircraft.

This important strategic decision by flybe., sets the course for its long-term fleet replacement and enables it to reinforce its claim to be the UK's number one regional low fares airline. Four Q400s will be accepted later this year with the first arriving in June. Eight Q400s will follow in 2004, two in 2005 and three in 2006.

The Q400s will be based at Southampton, where the airline is rapidly building a new hub of operations, Edinburgh, Belfast, the Channel Islands and Birmingham.

By June the airline will operate 12 destinations from Southampton using a mix of Q400 and BAe 146 aircraft.

Jim French, managing director of flybe., said: "The Q400 is delivering fantastically low operating costs at flybe., a benefit which we are passing directly on to our passengers with low fares as we expand our European network.

"We announced last year our intention to streamline our fleet to two aircraft types. With the announcement today to standardise on the Q400, we are well on track as we rebalance our network with a complementary mix of business and leisure routes."

The aircraft is said to be the most environmentally-friendly in the world.