Gatwick plans to provide further connections to growth markets after a 6.9% rise in annual passengers to 33.8 million.
The airport revealed underlying traffic growth of 3% in the year to March with EBITDA (a measure of profitability) up by almost 17% to £221.5 million. Turnover grew by 8.6% to £517.4 million.
The airport cited an ongoing multi-million pound investment programme in helping to draw more passengers and airlines.
Chief executive Stewart Wingate said: “Despite the difficult economic conditions, we have delivered a strong financial performance on the back of growing our passenger traffic by an underlying 3%.
“Underpinning our performance is a transformation of the passenger experience and improvement in operational efficiency for our airlines and the airport.
“We have been competing with Heathrow, Stansted and Luton and other European airports, and this has seen us achieve passenger growth every single month over the course of the year.
“We have been winning new connections to high growth economies including South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Hong Kong and China.”
He added: “Passengers and airlines are benefiting from new facilities and we are currently investing around £20 million per month. We expect to invest around a further £435 million over the next two years as we complete our six year £1.2 billion programme.
“The key to continuing this success will be greater flexibility to compete, which in turn will allow us to continue to innovate to meet the expectations of our passengers and drive further connectivity to key growth markets.”