European scheduled traffic helped boost passenger numbers using Gatwick by 2.3% to 2.1 million in February. An additional 46,600 passengers used the airport over the same month last year.
But European charter traffic dropped by more than 10% year on year, while North Atlantic business was down by 6.6% and other long-haul traffic by 4.4%.
Traffic during the February school half-term break increased by 4% with holidaymakers travelling to destinations including Dubai, Malaga, Tenerife, Geneva and Grenoble. Average load factors increased from 74.8% to 75.8% year on year.
Rossiya-Russian Airlines started a twice weekly service to St Petersburg this week, which is due to rise to five times a week from May. Aerosvit-Ukraine Airlines also started five flights a week to Kiev this month.