Gatwick Airport saw a 0.2 per cent increase – some 7,700 passengers – during August when compared to the same month last year.

Traffic on scheduled services to Europe from the airport continued to increase versus the prior year, but the growth rate of 4.1 per cent is lower than previous months in 2012.

Charter traffic to the same region continues to decline and there was also a fall in passengers on domestic and Irish routes.

Commenting on Gatwick’s traffic report for August, Nick Dunn, chief financial officer at Gatwick Airport said: “The excitement of the Games saw fewer Britons jet abroad on holiday in the first two weeks of August than last year, although there was an increase in late holiday bookings post the closing ceremony and this has continued into September.

“This saw the overall departing passenger numbers for the month being 1.3 per cent higher than the prior year.”

New airlines operating routes to the Asian markets helped to increase passenger numbers on long-haul routes outside of the North Atlantic by 8.2 per cent.

However, Hong Kong Airlines announced the suspension of its all Club Class direct route from Gatwick to Hong Kong with effect from September 10th, based on the weakening European economy combined with the strength of the regional business within Asia.