Rome, Pisa, Warsaw and Corfu are some of the new destinations that passengers will be able to fly to from Leeds-Bradford International Airport in 2006.

The airport is hoping the new destinations will bring a record year of growth and expects the number of passengers it handles to increase to three million.

During the summer, new scheduled services to Bergerac, Rome, Pisa, Milan, Mahon and Warsaw will begin and there will be new charter flights to Corfu, Crete, Paphos and Rhodes.

Ed Anderson, the airport's managing director, said: "We are delighted with the prospect of at least seven new services during the coming year and we will also be working hard to persuade an airline to introduce a service to one of the major cities in Germany this year."

Also Ryanair has announced the withdrawal of its B737-200 series aircraft from their Leeds-Bradford to Dublin service, replacing it with the much quieter B737-800 series aircraft.

Meanwhile work is progressing on "phase one" of a new £30 million regional business park near the airport, pictured.

The eight acre Airport West facility being created by property company Rushbond Plc, in association with the Yeadon airport, is intended to provide a base for businesses in the region who depend on regular air travel.

The business park is scheduled to take three years to complete.