Airports operator BAA today said a record 133.4 million passengers used its seven sites during the last financial year.
The annual figure, which was almost six million higher than a year earlier, included a 10.4% rise in traffic for March at 10.8 million passengers.
Last month's performance was helped by a weak comparison with a year earlier when confidence was dented by the outbreak of war in Iraq.
Among individual airports, Heathrow experienced an 11.6% improvement in March as the airport benefited from a 16.6% rise in demand for north Atlantic travel. Volumes at Gatwick grew 0.6% despite a 17.6% decline in charter traffic.
Stansted continued to experience strong growth as its year-on-year passenger numbers showed a 21% improvement last month.
The growth in low-cost travel also benefited Southampton, with a rise of 87%, while Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports performed solidly with a combined growth rate of 7.1%.
As well as the recovery in north Atlantic travel, BAA saw long haul routes carry 20% more passengers during March with European scheduled traffic ahead 12.6% across the seven airports.
The charter market remained weak last month with a drop of 9% while UK domestic routes gained 6.6%.
Across the financial year, BAA said its performance had been impacted early on by the influence of the Iraq war and the Sars outbreak.
However, Heathrow ended the 12-month period with 2.1% more passengers, a performance that took it past the 64 million mark.
Gatwick grew by 1.4% to pass 30 million while Stansted handled 15.9% more passengers to reach 19.4 million.
Elsewhere, Edinburgh added 7.2%, Glasgow rose by 3.1% and Southampton lifted by 72.8% to 1.37 million.
Aberdeen was the only airport to experience a year-on-year decline as the downturn in the oil industry caused annual figures to fall 1.6%.
Domestic and European scheduled traffic performed well for the year, up 4.8% and 8.4% respectively, as the boom in low-cost travel continued.
North Atlantic traffic gradually improved to report growth of 0.3% while other long haul traffic added 4.8%. The only market to decline was European charter, down 3.2%.
Tuesday April 13, 2004
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article