The airport broke the record at the end of February, which saw an 11% increase to 1.66 million passengers, and, as a result, has claimed a spot in Europe’s top 20 busiest airports

Ken O’Toole, Manchester airport chief executive, said: “Growth has been delivered across the board, reflecting the fact Manchester is now one of the world’s top 15 airports when it comes to the number of different destinations flown to.

“It is particularly pleasing to see the continued growth of our long haul network with the announcements of new routes to Casablanca and Riyadh giving the 22 million people in our catchment area even more choice.

“Looking ahead, new services to San Francisco, with both Virgin Atlantic and Thomas Cook, will launch shortly and deliver a boost to leisure and business passengers alike.

“We are also looking forward to pressing ahead with our £1 billion Transformation Programme, which will pave the way for more growth in the years to come, at the same time as providing our passengers with world class service levels.”

Due to the extra demand aircraft movements were also up last month by 7.2%, with more than 13,200 planes taking off and landing on the airport’s two full-length runways.