Profits at Manchester Airport Group increased by £7 million to £242 million in the year to March.
The results came despite a £7 million decline at Stansted attributed to a number of non-recurring items in connection with integration and transformation programmes.
Total capital expenditure for the year was £135 million including a new £20 million air traffic control tower at Manchester, a £12 million East Midlands airport terminal redevelopment and continued expansion in the car parks at Manchester and East Midlands.
Passengers using MAG airports rose by 4.3% to 43.8 million. Numbers are said to be on a “positive trajectory” at Stansted after a number of years of decline, following a deal with Ryanair to add new routes and expand frequencies from the winter.
Thomas Cook also announced the first direct long-haul routes from Stansted with services to Las Vegas, Cancun and Orlando this summer.
MAG chief financial officer Neil Thompson said: “The group has delivered another strong year of financial performance, exceeding its financial targets and delivering continued growth.
“We’ve secured an increase of 4.3% in passenger volumes, and through continued focus on commercial drivers and operational efficiencies, have delivered significant growth and increased earnings of £242 million for the year.
“The announcement of the first direct link between Manchester and China was significant and we have continued to perform well adding long-haul routes such as Charlotte, Jeddah, and Toronto at Manchester for this summer.
“There has also been an extension of European and short-haul connectivity with important route announcements from the likes of Ryanair, EasyJet, Thomson Airways, Thomas Cook and Monarch at our airports.
“The initial integration of Stansted into MAG has been successfully completed and the wide-ranging development and investment into the airport is well underway.
“The significant activity at Stansted and across MAG this year will generate continued strong performance and growth in 2014-15 and beyond.
“The investment being made in our airport infrastructure combined with the considerable existing spare capacity means that over the short term, medium and long term we expect Stansted and Manchester will continue to play a key role in delivering UK aviation growth.”