A record of more than 3.8 million passengers used Gatwick in September, the airport’s 19th successive month of growth.
Increased levels of long-haul travel, including new US routes by Norwegian together with links to emerging markets such as Vietnam, helped push numbers up by 7.7% over the same month last year.
Transatlantic traffic, which has recently been bolstered with new routes to New York and Los Angeles, increased by 12.6% while travel to other long-haul destinations was up by 12.5%.
This included a 5.6% increase in passengers flying to Vietnam and a 12.4% rise in traffic to Dubai.
Garuda Indonesia also started a Jakarta service last month.
Business travel continues to be a “key segment” of passenger growth, particularly on European routes such as Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin and Warsaw, Gatwick said.
“Gatwick saw an increase of over 250,000 business passengers on the prior year in September, with one in five Gatwick passengers now travelling for business,” the airport said.
Chief financial officer Nick Dunn said:
“Gatwick continues to prove that competition in the London market is working for passengers and airlines.
“More people than ever are choosing Gatwick over other airports and new short and long haul routes continue to open and prosper.
“In September, we have seen significant growth on the UK’s only direct route to Vietnam and the start of a new service to Jakarta from Gatwick.”
He added: “Building a second runway at Gatwick would enable the benefits of competition to continue to flourish.
“We must look to the future when it comes to making a decision on where new airport capacity goes and Gatwick is the only airport that can provide the balance between low-cost short-haul and long-haul growth which can deliver economic benefits to UK PLC from 2025.”