British airport Heathrow said on Wednesday that it had set a new monthly record for passenger numbers in August, with 7.97m people passing through its gates last month.

Heathrow said passenger numbers were up 5.5% year-on-year in August for a fourth-consecutive month of record traveller volumes. On 18 August, Heathrow recorded its busiest day on record, with 269,000 passengers using the airport.

The gateway airport also said it had served 82.6m passengers in the 12 months ended 31 August and was on track for 30.0m passengers this summer, a first for the airport.

Chief executive Thomas Woldbye said: "For the past four months we have broken several new records, demonstrating our ability to open a world of opportunity for more people, cargo, business and the UK economy."