The four airports which make up the Manchester Airports Group have reported a strong start to 2016.
January saw passengers using Manchester airport rise by 7.8% to more than 1.4 million, mainly due to new routes.
The northwest hub now serves over 210 destinations, now more than Heathrow which serves 180.
Popular routes in January were to Dubai, Palma and Tenerife, supported by more capacity to destinations like New York.
New routes from airlines such as Iberia Express and Vueling means that Manchester is served by more than 70 airlines – compared with 80 at Heathrow and around 45 at Gatwick.
An almost doubling of passengers on domestic routes compared with January 2015, helped push passengers using Stansted up by 11.8% year-on-year to more than 1.6 million.
East Midlands airport handled 4.1% more passengers last month at 191,000, driven by strong load factors.
Bournemouth airport’s 29,569 passengers in January was a 41.8% jump, taking its rolling 12 month total to 715,888, representing 8.1% growth over the previous year.