BOURNEMOUTH Airport is celebrating after clocking up record numbers of passengers last month.

In total, 90,246 passengers used the airport in July - the first time the airport has ever handled that many in a month.

"Load factors were healthy and above expectations - passenger throughput increased by 86 per cent over July 2004 with the existing terminal coping well," said an airport spokesman.

The increase came despite falls in the number of passengers using charter and private planes.

The figures break down as:

scheduled flights, 74,954 passengers - up 157.2 per cent on 2004;

charter flights- 15,127 passengers, down 21 per cent;

private - 165 passengers, down 11 per cent.

Last week Easyjet became the latest low cost carrier to announce that it would be flying from Bournemouth Airport. Its flights to and from Geneva will operate from December 15 to April 14, providing access to ski resorts including Chamonix, Courmayeur and Morzine.

The airline expects to carry more than 35,000 passengers over the ski season on a 156-seat Airbus A319.

Ryanair, Thomsonfly and Jet2 already fly from the airport. Jet2 and Thomsonfly both recorded their busiest months so far in July.

"Thomsonfly is seeing a large number of inbound passengers, particularly from Amsterdam," said the airport spokesman. "In-bound from Paris is also surpassing expectations and really shows that Bournemouth is a truly international airport."

Bournemouth Airport's business development manager, Luke Lovegrove, is leaving.

"Now that Bournemouth is starting to achieve consistent growth and is set to hit 1.25 million passengers next year, I want to move on to the next challenge," he said.