The group said 9.5 million passengers passed through its seven airports during the month.

Stripping out the extra day, the increase in customers was 4.7% - similar to the rise seen in January.

On a like-for-like basis the strongest growth was on long-haul routes, excluding the North Atlantic, where traffic was up 10.5% on last year.

However, air traffic in February last year was lower than usual because of worries over the war in Iraq.

Southampton success

But, despite growth in the long-haul market, short haul charter traffic fell 6.4%.

Elsewhere, European scheduled traffic was up 6.5% and North Atlantic activity rose 1.1%.

BAA said Southampton was its biggest success story - with traffic at the airport up 95% on last year thanks to the introduction of new services.

Meanwhile, Heathrow handled 3.5% more customers while an increase in European customers saw 15.9% more passengers handled at Stansted.

But there was bad news for Glasgow airport after a very strong year last year. Passenger traffic was down 2.2% on the same month in 2003.

BAA operates the airports at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.