London Gatwick announced two-and-a-half years of consecutive month-on-month traffic growth and achieved its busiest ever July - with 4.3 million passengers travelling through the airport.

The figure represents a 6.4 per cent increase on the previous year.

The airport’s long-haul routes were the key drivers of this impressive performance up seven per cent on the previous year.

Long-haul leisure destinations are also performing well with Cape Verde routes up 119 per cent and Trinidad routes up 96 per cent.

Passenger demand for long-haul routes has also driven a new British Airways non-stop route to Costa Rica to begin at Gatwick from May 2016.

An additional 260,000 passengers travelled through London Gatwick in July compared to the same month in 2014.

Passenger growth is the result of more air traffic movements per hour and larger aircraft being used on average across the airlines.

Average load factors were consistently strong at 89.5 per cent, up 1.3 points on the previous year.

Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said: “Two-and-a-half years of consecutive month-on-month growth shows that Gatwick continues to meet passengers’ needs by providing them with more choice, value and destinations.

“We are delighted to welcome British Airways’ nonstop flights between Gatwick and San Jose, Costa Rica – the latest addition to Gatwick’s long-haul success story.

“Flights to long-haul destinations are the fastest growing of the more than 220 destinations that Gatwick flies to today.”