Birmingham Airport has ended the summer season flying high, as almost 900,000 people passed through it in October.

Latest figures show the airport handled 878,689 passengers last month, which represents an increase of 5.8 per cent compared with October 2013. The news follow an historic summer for the airport, after August saw the busiest month in its 75 year history. While the latest total means the it has welcomed more than 6.6 million passengers between April and October.

Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport chief executive, said: "I believe more good times are ahead following our recent new route announcements with American Airlines and Vueling. We’ve seen more and more passengers choose Birmingham Airport this summer, breaking records along the way, so it’s only fitting we end the season with another really strong performance. This summer has raised the bar for next year and we’re confident we can rise to that challenge. Not only are we seeing many airlines increasing frequencies and operating bigger aircraft that have more seats for next summer, but recently we announced two key new routes to New York JFK with American Airlines and Barcelona with Vueling, both starting in summer 2015. The introduction of these new routes, which carry a BA codeshare, will give passengers more choice and only strengthen the demand that already exists to fly from Birmingham, as we have seen this summer.”