A STRUGGLING regional airline has announced it will be axing five routes out of Southampton Airport as part of a raft of cost-cutting measures.

Flybe last night said that scrapping the routes is part of an overhaul to make the company viable which will see the airport lose 17 staff as part of a cull of 500 jobs nationally.

Southampton flights to and from Leeds-Bradford and Hannover in Germany will be withdrawn from January 19.

Summer-only services to Barcelona, Beziers and the Isle of Man will also stop.

Passengers affected by these changes are being contacted and offered, where possible, an alternative Flybe flight or a full refund on their ticket.

Flybe’s chief commercial officer Paul Simmons said: “We are pleased to confirm our summer 2014 schedule.

“We have taken a long, hard look at all the routes we fly from Southampton to make sure they are what our customers really want and that they operate at the best possible times for everyone.

"The extent of our regional network, with more than 150 routes on sale for next summer means that no other airline has the regional and onward international connectivity offered by Flybe.”

The loss of the routes is part of an overhaul being led by new chief executive Saad Hammad, who says that without the restructuring the Exeter-based business, which employs 2,700 people, cannot be viable.

Bases at Aberdeen, Guernsey, Inverness, the Isle of Man, Jersey and Newcastle will shut down, although the airline said that it would continue to fly to the airports.

Seventeen jobs will be lost from a Hampshire workforce of 98 pilots, 103 cabin crew, 15 engineers and four in other varied roles.

Numbers earmarked for redundancies are: Aberdeen, 12; Belfast, 52; Birmingham, 49; Edinburgh, 49; Exeter, 116; Guernsey, 12; Glasgow, 37; Inverness, 35; Isle of Man, 49; Jersey, 35; Manchester, 13 and Newcastle, 17.