Gatwick was the main winner as the British Airports Authority (BAA) recorded a 7.7 per cent rise in traffic at its airports last month - thanks to an early Easter.

The airport group, which owns Gatwick, Heathrow and Stansted, said it handled 11.6 million passengers in March compared to 10.7 million last year.

Without the effect of the bank holiday weekend, BAA said the increase was still five per cent - higher than February's 4.6 per cent gain.

For the year to March as a whole, the group's UK airports handled 141.7 million passengers, up 6.3 per cent against the previous financial year. Gatwick gained most from the early Easter with traffic rising by 15.4 per cent to 2.5 million.

Passenger numbers topped 32 million during the financial year for the first time since September 2001.

Cargo traffic fell across the airports by 3.3 per cent, reflecting a drop in the number of working days in March. Overall, full-year cargo activity was up by 6.7 per cent.

Yesterday's figures represent continued growth for BAA which, in common with the rest of the aviation industry, has been recovering from the setbacks of Sars, the Iraq war and terrorism.

Despite the early Easter, European charter markets declined by 1.9 per cent, which BAA said reflected continued competition. UK domestic routes recorded four per cent growth. The results followed a report published yesterday which showed the growing popularity of low-fare flights had taken air travel above September 11 levels for the first time.

Travel data company OAG said airlines would operate more than 2.27 million flights worldwide this month - 110,000 more than in April 2001, five months before the US terror attacks.

Paul Griffiths, managing director of BAA Gatwick, described passenger numbers at Gatwick as "exceptional" and said it was now the fastest growing airport in the BAA group.

He added: "It is the first time Gatwick's passenger numbers have returned to full strength since September 2001, with 32 million passenger travelling through Gatwick in the past 12 months."

He said Gatwick had reported continued strong growth in passenger numbers for the first quarter of 2005, particularly in the long haul and European markets.

All the main carriers based at Gatwick are adding new routes this summer.

British Airways will start flying to Split, Thessalonika, Vilnius, Heraklion and Sofia.

Ryanair is to launch its service to Shannon at the start of next month and easyJet will start services to Olbia on May 24.

International destinations will be added by Crawley-based Virgin Atlantic Airways when it starts its new services to Nassau, Bahamas, and Havana, Cuba, in July.