The group revealed it has had its fifth consecutive year of strong growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) after it increased by 12% to £317.7 million.

This was generated from revenues of £778.8 million, an increase of 5.5% year on year, while operating profit was recorded at £186.9 million, up 21.7% for the year ending March 31, 2016.

Overall, passenger numbers grew by 7% to 51.9 million at MAG’s four airports, Stansted, Bournemouth, East Midlands and Manchester.

Broken down, the figures show passenger growth was strongest at Stansted where an additional 2.3 million passengers brought the total to 23.2 million, an increase of 11%.

This was only just shy of the Manchester’s total passenger numbers at 23.5 million following an increase of 5.4% year on year.

However, the other two airports did not perform as well with Bournemouth remaining flat on 700,000 passengers while East Midlands saw a drop of 2.2% to 4.5 million.

Route development is proving strong for MAG though as it now has more than 100 airlines flying more than 1,000 aircraft into its airports each day.

New routes announced or started this year include from Manchester to San Francisco, Boston, Phuket, Mauritius, and from Stansted to Orlando, Cancun and Las Vegas.

Stansted also saw flights with British Airways to a range of European destinations announced for the first time.

The group has also investing heavily in preparing for the future with Stansted seeing an £80m terminal improvement programme and £11m redevelopment of Satellite One were completed.

Planning permission was also granted for the £1 billion Manchester airport transformation programme.

Charlie Cornish, chief executive of MAG, said: “This has been the fifth consecutive year of growth for the group and we have continued to outperform our challenging financial targets and seen record numbers of passengers using our airports.

“We have also made significant progress with our long term investment programme, made an important contribution to the economies in which we operate and generated increased returns for our shareholders.

“Our airports have been able to outperform their competitors over the last year largely because they still have the capacity to grow.

“In the coming years, as this country continues to see an increase in air travel, government must ensure that aviation policy makes best use of capacity at airports where it already exists, such as London Stansted and Manchester.

“MAG’s business strategy has a long-term focus with resilient foundations. This will stand us in good stead to respond to any adverse consequences that may be felt by the UK economy following the country’s decision to the leave the EU.

“Our strategy to drive top-line growth, improve efficiency and broaden our mix of business will continue and in the coming year we will ensure that we remain focussed on delivering further profitable growth.

“As the country enters a new era, we will be working closely with the rest of our industry to ensure that once we leave the EU the UK remains a member of the European single aviation market.

“At no point have the excellent international air links that this country’s airports provide been more vital to the nation’s future prosperity and economic growth.”