Heathrow has experienced growth in passenger volumes for October, according to its latest report.

It received 6.3 million individuals throughout the month, up 4.6 per cent from a year ago. When compensating for the effects of fog from both the St Jude storm this year and Hurricane Sandy in 2012, the airport gives underlying growth as four per cent.

Per aircraft, this translated to an increase of 1.4 per cent, to 154.6 passengers on average.

In particular, the airport noted a 5.9 per cent growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, which was driven in part by a 19.2 per cent increase in China. Indian numbers were up 8.3 per cent, with Brazil's figures rose by 4.7 per cent.

Chief executive officer Colin Matthews spoke highly of the results, while arguing the need to expand the airport's current capacity. Mr Matthews stated Heathrow is the only airport in the country serving Chinese markets since Air China stopped flights from Gatwick.

He said: "In contrast, [British Airways] has redeployed previous bmi slots to introduce a new route from Heathrow to Chengdu, showing that if new capacity were available at the UK's hub, airlines would add new routes."