A major shake-up of routes from Southampton International Airport, including the loss of three services, has been announced by British Airways CitiExpress today.

As part of a wide-ranging review of flights the airline is abandoning its operations to Dublin, Aberdeen and the Isle of Man out of the city and is also swapping Leeds Bradford and Newcastle to another carrier.

This comes as low cost airline buzz says it is to begin services from Bournemouth International next year and the established no frills carrier, Ryanair, which already flies from the Dorset airport to Dublin, has said it also intends to start flights to Glasgow-Prestwick.

A spokesman for British Airways CitiExpress said: "This has been a tough decision to make and one that was not taken lightly.

"Although we are withdrawing from some routes from Southampton we must stress that we are still fully committed to the city's airport.''

The company says no jobs will be lost as a result of the changes which are due to come into effect from the end of March next year at the start of the summer season for airlines.

Falling passenger numbers are blamed by the wholly owned British Airways subsidiary for the reduction in its network.

"For example, with Dublin we introduced lower fares which were successful but to make a route viable mid-range and higher priced tickets also have to be sold and these have not reached the levels we forecast,'' said the British Airways spokesman.

At the moment there are three flights a day from Southampton to Dublin, the Aberdeen service takes off twice a day and the Isle of Man is a summer only route.

In the future flights to Leeds Bradford and Newcastle will be flown by the independently owned Eastern Airways, founded in 1997 and is based at Humberside Airport.

"Passengers will still be able to reach Aberdeen from Southampton but in the future they will have to go via Leeds Bradford and Newcastle,'' said the spokesman.

Altogether across the country British Airways CitiExpress is to withdraw from 21 regional routes and will no longer fly from Cardiff and Leeds-Bradford airports.