Experts from the Airport Operators Association (AOA) have claimed that regional airports and low cost airlines have together provided a great recipe for frequent travel.

Civil Aviation Authority figures showed that travel from regional airports has grown to nearly 100 million in 2006, a 42 per cent rise on the previous year.

Meanwhile travellers from London airports continued to expand in number, but with an increase of only three per cent over the same period.

Chris Goater, head of media and public affairs at the AOA, claimed that "regional airports have grown faster in proportion to traditional big airports, which traditionally were Heathrow, Gatwick and Manchester".

Mr Goater highlighted the attraction of the growing regional airports to low cost airlines, which he claimed "want to run off smaller airports and try to use the advantages of doing that. The two have gone hand in hand…the airports have grown with the low cost airlines".

With the boom in UK regional airports and in low cost air travel, easily reachable and ever-popular destinations like Spain have benefited greatly.

Airlines like Monarch and Jet2 have expanded their Spanish focus to fly out from a variety of airlines in the north of England, while well-established low-cost leaders Easyjet and Ryanair continue to run multiple routes between Britain and Spain.