London Luton Airport (LLA) chief executive Nick Barton said the facility had seen growth for the 27th month in a row after an increase of 17.7% year on year meant more than 1.4 million passengers used the airport.
As a result £110 million is being spent on increasing the airport’s capacity by 50% from 12 million to 18 million passengers by 2020.
Barton added the increased number of passengers has been partly driven by new routes introduced by the airport’s 15 airlines. In June Adria Airways launched flights to Kosovo while this month Air Nostrum will launch a service to San Sebastian.
Increased transport links including a dual carriageway and a £200 million light rail link will also drive further traffic once they are up and running.
Barton said: “With a decision on future runway capacity put on hold LLA remains the only London airport that is expanding capacity to meet rapidly growing demand.
“The priority now is to make sure the travelling public can easily access our increasing range of destinations and new facilities, giving people more choice and flexibility.
“That’s why in the build up to the new East Midlands rail franchise we are working hard to secure additional fast train services.”
The positive results were mirrored by three out of four of Manchester Airports Group (MAG) facilities.
Manchester airport saw a 9.2% increase to 2.5 million; Stansted reported a boost of 6.3% to 2.2 million and East Midlands was up 7.4% to more than 550,000.
Of MAG’s properties, only Bournemouth saw a fall in passenger numbers, down 7.3%
