RECORD numbers of passengers are using the Internet to book flights, new figures reveal.

More than nine out of ten travellers using two of the three budget airlines that fly from the North-East are skipping conventional methods to reserve their seats.

Ryanair's latest statistics show 94 per cent of its sales are made on-line, while the figure for EasyJet is 95 per cent.

Figures for bmibaby were not available, but since its inception in March last year, more than two million seats have been sold.

EasyJet, which describes itself as "the web's favourite airline", operates flights from Newcastle to seven destinations - Paris, Prague, Barcelona, Alicante, Belfast, Bristol and Stanstead.

Its fleet of three planes at Newcastle International Airport is to be increased to four next year to meet the demand.

Described as Europe's third largest low-cost airline, bmibaby, will fly from Teesside Airport to Belfast and Malaga from October, and to Geneva from December. Tickets went on sale last month and created a huge demand.

It also operates from Manchester to Cork, Alicante, Malaga, Murcia, Palma, Geneva and Belfast, and will add services to Prague and Barcelona from October.

Ryanair flies to Dublin from Newcastle, Teesside, Manchester and Leeds Bradford.

Figures show almost 18 million passengers used Ryanair in the year up to the end of July - almost 16.5 million, or 92 per cent, of which were booked on the Internet.

Online bookings reached a high last month, with 94 per cent of more than two million passengers choosing to order their seat electronically.

EasyJet flew 19 million passengers during the past year, of which more than 18 million avoided travel agents and used their computer instead.

Since tickets went on sale for bmibaby's flights from Teesside, with one-way fares starting at £12.50, more than 3,000 people have booked.

The airport's commercial manager, Richard Whitehouse, said: "The demand has been phenomenal."

Tony Davis, managing director of bmibaby, said: "We are pleased with how sales are going so far on our new Teesside routes."

Ryanair, the Dublin-based no frills carrier, yesterday posted first-quarter net profits of £30.8m - a 12 per cent rise - and revealed a 45 per cent growth in passenger volume.

Chief executive Michael O'Leary described the figures as "exceptional".

EasyJet's latest figures show a passenger growth of 83 per cent for June, compared to the same month last year.

Chief executive Ray Webster said: "These results demonstrate, for both business and leisure customers, the continuing attractiveness of our fares structure and the airports selected for our network."