FLIGHTS between Southampton and Frankfurt are being scrapped as part of a £20m cost cutting exercise by British Airways CitiExpress regional operations.

At the same time the carrier is to create 31 new jobs at Southampton International Airport with the increase of its city-based aircraft fleet.

According to British Airways the Frankfurt route, which was first introduced more than two years ago, has been losing "substantial" amounts of money due to poor passenger figures.

The airline spokesman denied that it was pulling out of the route because the no-frills airline, Ryanair recently began flying to Frankfurt Hahn from nearby Bournemouth Airport.

Under the review the airline's Southampton fleet will increase from four to six aircraft based at the airport. The fleet will consist of four 50-seater Dash 8 and two 49- seater Embraer regional jets.

"This will result in an additional 31 jobs in Southampton consisting of pilots, cabin crew and engineers," said the spokesman.

"The route from Southampton to Newcastle will gain extra frequen-cy each weekday from two to four flights and there will be a better spread of timings and additional Sunday service to Dublin.

"As the airline is focusing on its profitable services flights to Belfast City will be reduced from two to one a day although the air-craft will have more capacity."

The alterations to the route will take effect in August.