Wednesday 14 December 2016 1:39 pm

Gatwick just had a record November bolstered by soaring long-haul growth

Gatwick's chief executive has said he intends to keep pushing for his airport to expand alongside Heathrow's third runway since his rival was given the green light by government.

And Stewart Wingate will be able to point to another record month to bolster his argument, after revealing the airport just had its busiest ever November. For the month, 2.8m passengers travelled through the airport, up 7.3 per cent on the same time last year, while long-haul growth was up by a fifth.

That was driven by North Atlantic routes, up 43.4 per cent on this time last year, with New York up 95 per cent, LA up 90 per cent and Fort Lauderdale Florida up 71 per cent. Cargo volumes were up 12 per cent for the month.

In the 12 months to this November, the airport served 2.7m more passengers than it did in the year up to November 2015.

That comes after a record 3.9m passengers travelled through the airport in October and 4.3m for September.

Gatwick has also announced new connections to Asia, with Cathay Pacific's four-times-weekly service from the airport becoming daily from June 2017. From tomorrow, Thomas Cook will also start a new service to Cape Town, adding to British Airways' service making six flights weekly from Gatwick.

Stewart Wingate, Gatwick's chief executive, said: "Almost three million more passengers are travelling through the airport this year versus the same time last year, with 42.7 million passengers passing through the airport annually – this figure that puts us 14 years ahead of industry predictions."

He added that passengers were drawn to the growing line-up of long-haul connections being offered, with routes to China, Canada, Costa Rica, Peru, Nigeria and the US being added in the last year.