CLOUDS over the 2007 English summer had a silver lining for Bournemouth Airport, which has had its busiest season ever.

Figures released by airport chiefs show passenger numbers exceeding 100,000 over the three consecutive months from June to August.

June was the first month ever to exceed the 100,000 passengers mark, with a 12 per cent increase over the same month in 2006.

And passenger numbers continued to soar in July - up 19 per cent - and August, which saw an increase of almost a quarter with a total of 338,870 travellers passing through the terminal at Hurn during the three summer months.

Top destination during the summer months was Palma, closely followed by Girona and Prestwick, with popular destinations Dublin and Malaga featured in fourth and fifth places.

The airport is now looking forward to yet another busy autumn season with new routes including Alicante and Bergamo taking off with Ryanair, new Polish destinations Katowice and Gdansk with Wizz Air and easyJet's two new winter destinations, Krakow and Grenoble. The airport's winter charter programme is also developing with the introduction of Tunisia and Fuerteventura with Palmair this winter.

Airport managing director Peter Duffy said: "We are delighted with the month on month increase in passenger figures for summer 2007."

"Bournemouth Airport aims to provide an excellent choice of destinations for travellers and hopes passenger figures will continue to rise over the coming months."