AN airport boss is about to see his career soar to new heights when he takes over as managing director of Southampton Airport.

Dave Lees, 42, will be bumped up from operations director to the top job next month.

The dad-of-two joined BAA 20 years ago as a trainee and his career took off seeing him holding top posts in passenger terminal management, engineering, industry regulation, commerce and service.

Since joining Southampton in 2007 he has pushed forward improvements and seen the airport get voted the best in Europe for customer service.

He takes over from Kevin Brown who is leaving to run Edinburgh Airport.