Stansted Airport’s annual passenger total has passed the 21million mark for the first time in nearly six years.

More than 1.91m passenged passed through the airport in April, an increase of 10.7% over the same month last year, making it the busiest April at Stansted in 2007.

The rolling annual passenger total now stands at more than 21.1m, 16.2% up on the previous 12 months and the first time the figure has topped 21m since May 2009.

Andrew Harrison, managing director at Stansted Airport, said: “The strong growth of passenger numbers in April maintains the positive upward trend Stansted has experience over the last two years, and has enabled us to break through the 21m passengers a year milestone just three months after passing the 20 million passengers a year total.

“This excellent performance continues to be driven by the additional routes and increased frequencies our airline partners provide to key destination across Europe and the UK, and the higher number of passengers on each flight to and from Stansted.

“During the month we welcomed new Ryanair routes to the Azores and Deauville while this week we see the return of daily flights to Newquay which I’m sure will prove to be extremely popular as we head into the summer, and even more attractive to families following the recent scrapping of Air Passenger Duty for under 12s.”

Cargo tonnage handled by Stansted also continued to grow last month, with the April figure of 18,494 representing a 1.6% increase on the same month last year while the rolling annual total now stands at 232,269, 12.1% up on the previous 12 months.