BIRMINGHAM Airport continues to grow as one of the UK's main regional travel hubs.

A string of new airlines and routes has boosted its passenger figures for March by almost 100,000. A total of 830,544 travellers used the airport last month compared with 731,357 in March 2015.

Paul Kehoe, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, said: "This rolling 12 month period has been our best ever and we ended it with a very significant and exciting March. We welcomed Iberia Express, Blue Air, Qatar and the fantastic Emirates A380 to the airport, all of which we are looking forward to supporting throughout the summer season.

"These new airlines and routes are expected to bring a lot more people to our airport as travellers take advantage of the expanding choice available from Birmingham."

Long-haul routes experienced the largest increase in demand with a 22.5 per cent growth in passengers. Flights to North America and the Middle East were up by 61.3 per cent and 34.6 per cent respectively.