Commenting on the latest figures Stansted’s MD Andrew Cowan, said: “The beginning of the school holidays helped boost Stansted’s traffic to over 2.3million passengers, while load factors averaged 91.8%, another record for the month of July at Stansted. The rolling annual total now stands at 23.6 million passengers as we close in on our all-time high of 24 million. The month also saw the airport record its busiest day for aircraft movements on the runway since October 2008.

“Western Mediterranean destinations, particularly Majorca and Ibiza continue to top the favorites list with holidaymakers while Orlando and Cancun operated by Thomson and Thomas Cook, proved a big hit with families looking to try out the new long haul offer from Stansted. There was also a rising demand in domestic traffic as Brits jetted off for a summer staycation in Ireland and Scotland.

“The volume of cargo handled continued to increase with the rolling annual total up 6.4% to 248,085. 20,820 tonnes was transported through in July alone including 34 of the world’s top equestrian horses bound for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.”