Gatwick started the new year with long-haul routes powering passenger growth with almost 17% more passengers in January.
Total numbers passing through the airport last month rose by 1.4% to a record 2.8 million over January last year.
The airport’s 59th consecutive month of growth was boosted by a 32% rise in travellers flying on North Atlantic routes and a 10% increase in other long-haul routes.
This was countered by a 7.7% drop in UK domestic traffic, wile European charter numbers dropped by 4.6% and European scheduled traffic declined by 1.6%.
Fort Lauderdale was the North American destination with the highest passenger growth rate, up 92.6% on January 2017.
New York and Boston saw year-on-year growth of 51.1% and 31.4% respectively while Oakland, San Francisco numbers grew by 76.6% and Los Angeles by 38.6%.
Asia routes also saw growth, with Hong Kong up 42.4% year-on-year.
The three domestic routes with the highest percentage growth were Newquay, up 21.3%, Guernsey up 13% and Glasgow up 9%.
Airport CEO Stewart Wingate said: “We’ve started 2018 as we mean to go on at Gatwick, with record January passenger numbers and considerable year-on-year growth across our long-haul route network.
“January’s traffic shows that US destinations are increasingly popular and next month we’ll be providing even more options for passengers travelling Stateside with the launch of new routes to Austin and Chicago.
“These new connections will be joined this summer by British Airways’ biggest summer schedule at the airport in almost ten years – a 15% increase in weekly flights compared to last year.
“As we approach five consecutive years of growth, Gatwick continues to play an increased role for Britain on the global stage and we stand ready to build our financeable and deliverable second runway scheme for the country.”