Highlands and Islands Airports Limited (Hial) has reported handling more passengers than ever before in the last financial year.

The airport group, which operates 11 airports across Scotland, dealt with 1,437,625 passengers in 2015/16, up by more than 6,000 on the previous year.

Inverness was the busiest site but growth was also reported at Tiree, Barra and Dundee.

However, figures for the first quarter of 2016 are down, Hial has said.

A decline in business from the energy sector at Wick John O'Groats and Sumburgh airports and the loss of Flybe's Inverness to London City service were factors.

Hial said numbers of passengers were expected to rise again with new flights operating to and from Inverness Airport.

'Better connected'

Managing director Inglis Lyon said: "This has been a good year for Hial's airports.

"Our smaller island airports performed extremely well, as did Inverness and Dundee, both of which will see expansion in the coming months as a result of new routes."

He added: "We have worked hard to improve connectivity across our group, with new aircraft serving the communities of Barra, Tiree and Campbeltown and new air services due to launch at Inverness and Dundee.

"As a result of our strengthening route network, regional Scotland is now better connected than ever before."