Britain's biggest regional airport has joined the Europe top 20 as its passenger numbers continue to grow, officials in Manchester said Thursday.

In January, the number of passengers using Manchester Airport hit a record high of 1,665,943, as many people escaped the winter months for a warmer climate.

The January figure also took the number of passengers using the airport over the last 12 months to almost 26 million, a year-on-year growth of 11.3 percent.

Authorities at Manchester said the airport has replaced Stockholm Airport in the list of Europe's 20 busiest airports.

"Manchester has seen particularly strong growth in long haul traffic over a sustained period of time, with numbers up 13 percent in the last 12 months. It also marks 34 months of consecutive growth for the UK's third biggest airport," said a spokesman for the airport.

January also saw Emirates switch to using the world's largest passenger jet, Airbus A380, from Manchester, putting it in the same field as Paris and Barcelona.

"To enter the top 20 airports of Europe is a significant milestone and sees us rub shoulders with the leading gateways on the continent, in terms of total passenger numbers, the mix of destinations available and the aircraft operating on those routes," said Ken O'Toole, CEO of Manchester Airport.

"A growing number of international visitors are also looking to Manchester Airport as their gateway not just to the North but the UK as a whole," the CEO said, adding that the airport aims to bring on more long haul routes in 2017.

Due to the extra demand, aircraft movements were also up last month by 17.4 percent, with almost 14,000 planes taking off and landing on the airport's two full length runways.

source: Xinhua