Passenger numbers at Gatwick are up, but profits are down, just days before the airport could find out if it has beaten its rival Heathrow and might win permission to build a new runway. The West Sussex airport had more flights, more passengers and busier planes last year, breaking its record for its busiest ever month in August 2014 with 4.37 million passengers - that worked out at 141,000 a day. Overall passenger numbers were up 7.8 per cent in the year to a total of 38.7 million with the vast majority - over 32 million - flying to Europe. The airport recorded 906 air traffic movements in one day in August, a world record for a single-runway airport.Gatwick in tense battle with Heathrow over right to build new runwayCEO says today's figures show that Gatwick is the best choice
_ is the country's biggest airport and a hub where more than a third of passengers are connecting to other flights.