Stansted Airport is celebrating its busiest ever March as annual passenger numbers topped 23million for the first time since July 2008.

The Essex airport welcomed more than 1.89 million passengers in what was a record-breaking month.

It also registered its busiest ever winter season as more than 8.65m passengers passed through the airport during the five month period ending March 2016, beating the previous season high set in winter 2006/07.

The monthly passenger total was 13.2% on the same month last year with an average load factor of 85.9% on all flights during the month, also a new record for any March in the airport’s history.

The volume of cargo handled during the month rose by nearly 14% as 22,000 tonnes of goods passed through the specialist cargo facilities. The annual total increased by nearly 5% to over 243,000 tonnes in the last 12 months.

Chief executive Andrew Cowan said: “Stansted’s passenger traffic continues to grow at a rapid pace as we experienced our busiest ever March and served the highest number of passengers during a winter flying season in the airport’s history.

“This is further proof that thousands more people each and every month are choosing Stansted when deciding which airport to fly from thanks to the value and choice provided by our extensive and growing route network and the on-going investment programme to improve passengers services and facilities.”