Passenger figures at the Isle of Man's airport in September were sharply down on last year’s totals.

Five thousand, five hundred fewer people used Ronaldsway last month than in September 2006, a fall being blamed on the lack of a Luton route.

The figures from the Department of Transport show 5,300 people used the route in September last year, accounting for most of this year’s fall.

The route is due to be restarted by Flybe this month, giving some cheer to staff at Ronaldsway.

Although routes to major destinations seem to be in decline, regional routes are booming.

Manx2’s Gloucester service carried almost 1,200 passengers in its first 28 days of operation, and Flybe’s flights to Southampton doubled passengers to almost 2,000.