The southeast regional airport at Waterford has announced a 42 per cent increase in passenger numbers for 2007.
The operating company said the airport had "experienced an upward surge of passengers using the facility to get home for the Christmas holiday season".
While full-year passenger numbers - at 115,000 - are still a fraction of Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports, Waterford airport's chief executive officer Graham Doyle said he was "confident that the growth trend of the airport can be maintained".
Waterford offers scheduled flights twice daily to London Luton and six days a week to Manchester and Birmingham, operated by Aer Arann. The airport also offers chartered summer services to Lorient (Brittany), Bordeaux, Faro and Malaga.
The airport opened in 1981 with a Portakabin as its terminal building and a 1,200-metre long, 29-metre wide runway for single and twin-engined aircraft.
In 1985, Ryanair launched its first scheduled service from Waterford to London Gatwick. The current terminal building was opened in 1992 when the runway was expanded. The airport is also used by private business and leisure aircraft.
Earlier this year the Government announced Transport 21 funding of €22.3 million for improvements. The company is borrowing an additional €5.2 million and is undertaking an expansion programme to extend the runway and develop the terminal to handle one million passengers a year.
Mr Doyle said work on the €28 million capital programme would begin in the new year and should be completed by 2010. "Business and tourism in Waterford and throughout the southeast will continue to benefit from the greater accessibility provided by an expanding airport."
He said the extended runway would allow the airport to "handle large jet aircraft, including the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737" and expand the range of scheduled flights to service cities such as Amsterdam, Barcelona, Paris, Prague and Rome. The programme of chartered flights to summer holiday destinations would also be expanded.
Mr Doyle said the airport, which has a catchment population of 450,000, would benefit from a new road linking it to Waterford city and would provide fast access to the Waterford-Dublin motorway which is under construction.