Manchester airport has handled 29 million passengers in a year for the first time in its history.
The milestone was reached as almost three million passengers used the north-west hub in June, a rise of 3.6% year-on-year.
Direct, long-haul connectivity continued to drive growth, with passenger numbers up 10% on scheduled flights.
Increased frequency of Qatar Airways’ service to Doha gave a 43.3% increase in passengers, with those travelling to Singapore up by 23.8%.
Traffic to north Africa also drove growth, with passengers flying to Morocco rising by 37%, alongside a 34% increase to Egypt and 24.1% to Cape Verde.
The performance helped owner Manchester Airports Group achieve a 1.8% improvement in monthly passenger numbers across its three airports last month.
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Stansted saw growth of 1% to almost 2.7 million passengers with Turkey, Portugal and France showing the biggest increases, while ten new routes were introduced.
East Midlands airport suffered a 4.2% decline to 536,303 passengers, although there was a 40.3% increase to Turkey alongside a 7.3% improvement to Jersey at the start of the summer holidays.
MAG corporate affairs director Graeme Elliott said: “Manchester airport serving more passengers than ever before shows the benefits of an increase in competition and choice that our expanding long-haul network is delivering.
“With more connections to destinations on offer, Manchester airport continues to demonstrate the key role it can play in rebalancing the UK economy, boosting inward investment and business opportunities into the Northern Powerhouse and further afield.
“The expanding route network across MAG’s airports means that more passengers than ever are using them to reach global destinations.
“Increased frequencies to global hubs and a more diverse selection of destinations across Europe is proving popular for both business and leisure connectivity.”
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