Manchester Airport saw a 5.2% increase last year in its passenger figures.

But the number of passengers using UK airports is still below pre-recession levels despite a 3.5% increase last year.

UK airports handled 228 million passengers in 2013 - which was 7.8 million more than in 2012, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.

Last year's total was 8.5% more than in 2010 but still 4.8% below the 2007 peak of nearly 240 million passengers.

The 2013 figures included a 3.4% rise for Heathrow to 72.3 million passengers, while Gatwick rose 3.5% to 34.2 million and Stansted was up 2.2% to 17.8 million.

Manchester Airport enjoyed a 5.2% rise, to 20 million, in 2013 and the only large outside-London airports where numbers declined last year were at Liverpool (down 6.1%) and Belfast International (down 6.7%).

Numbers taking charter flights continued to go down last year, dipping 3% to 20 million. But scheduled-flight numbers rose 4.1%.

CAA regulatory policy director Iain Osborne said: "Our figures show the strength of underlying demand for air travel, which picked up well in advance of the general economy.

"Solid growth in UK GDP (gross domestic product) may mean that passenger numbers continue to grow healthily. This is happening despite a shortage of runway capacity in south-east England, as for the time being airlines operating bigger and fuller aircraft is allowing passenger growth to outstrip growth in numbers of flights.

"The prospect of growth underlines how important it is for aviation to tackle its environmental impacts - notably, reducing aircraft noise and carbon emissions. Addressing these issues is vital if aviation is to grow."

The majority of UK airport passengers (137 million) last year flew to or from Europe. This was 4.1% more than in 2012, with flights to and from Spain rising 4.8%.

North America traffic last year dipped 0.7% to 20.6 million passengers. There were big increases in numbers flying to and from the United Arab Emirates and to India, while Egypt and Kenya numbers fell sharply.

Last year, 20 million passengers took UK domestic flights - a 2.2% rise on the 2012 figures. This was the first yearly increase in domestic traffic since a peak of 25 million in 2005.

A total of 57% (118 million) of scheduled-flight passengers at UK airports travelled on UK airlines, while 27% went on other EU carriers.