Stansted Airport has reported its busiest ever February, with more than 1.69million passengers passing through its terminal building during the month.

The figure represents a 15% increase on the total of just under 1.47m achieved in February last year, and marks a 23rd consecutive month of passenger growth for Stansted.

Even adjusting for this year’s extra leap day last month’s total beats the previous February best, recorded in 2007, and the monthly load factor of 84.9% – a measure of how many of the seats available on fights are filled – was also a record for the airport in February.

Stansted’s rolling annual passenger total now stands at more than 22.96m, an 11.5% increase compared with the total of just under 20.60m for the previous 12 months, and the highest achieved by the airport since the year to August 2008.

Andrew Harrison, managing director at Stansted Airport, said: “The upward trend in passenger traffic at Stansted continued during the month as we experienced our busiest ever February, the 23rd consecutive month of passenger growth and the highest annual passenger total since August 2008.

“This strong demand continues to be driven by record numbers of passengers on each flight arriving and departing from Stansted plus airlines increasing capacity on key routes including Berlin, Cologne, Prague and the Scottish cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow.”

He added: “Stansted is the UK’s fastest growing major airport at the heart of the UK’s innovation corridor and we remain focused on providing passengers with even more choice of airlines and destinations to better serve our region’s needs.”

Cargo volumes at Stansted also saw a significant increase last month, with the tonnage 19,041 being up 9.4% compared with February last year. This pushed the rolling annual total to 240,505 tonnes, an increase of 4.5% on the previous 12 months.