Heathrow is BA's base for long-haul flights

BA is asking the government to build a third runway at Heathrow rather than a second for Stansted.

A new Stansted runway would provide more capacity to low-cost rivals such as Easyjet and Ryanair.

The Department of Transport said no decision has yet been made on where to allow more runways in the South East.

A runway for Heathrow has to come first, passengers and industry want expansion there Andrew Cahn, British Airways

BA says long-haul operators have the most pressing need for what will be London's first new runway in nearly 20 years.

BA says two extra runways for the South East could generate �65bn of economic benefits, but that expansion to Stansted alone would be "disastrous" for the industry.

Stiff competition

"We are quite happy for a runway to be built at Stansted - it will be very useful to the low cost airlines and freight companies which operate there," Andrew Cahn, director of government and industry at BA, told BBC Radio Five Live.

Stansted Airport is home to many low cost carriers

"But we absolutely need another runway at Heathrow in order for our business to grow."

Lufthansa and Air France are both expanding their networks out of Frankfurt and Paris, and BA is desperate to be able to compete effectively.

The UK's flagship carrier is also struggling to fend off competition from its no-frills rivals.

Second hub experiment

The number of UK air passengers is expected to rise from 117 million a year now, to 300 million by 2030.

"Our network has grown in the past couple of years and there is no room to grow at Heathrow," Mr Cahn said.

"A runway for Heathrow has to come first, passengers and industry want expansion there."

Mr Cahn said a BA experiment in the 1990s to expand Gatwick as a second hub had failed, costing the company millions of dollars.

He also said that Stansted was too far away to build up as a second UK hub for long-haul flights.

"Having second hub airports within 100 miles of the initial hub do not work anywhere else in the world," he said.

Protest petition

BAA owns London's three main airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - and said it would be much more expensive to build a second Stansted runway without cross-subsidy from its other airports.

And Mr Cahn said: "By all means build a runway at Stansted but don't ask us to pay for it."

Prime Minister Tony Blair has been handed a 4,000-name petition calling for a third runway at Heathrow airport to be ruled out.

Any final decision will be disclosed in Transport Secretary Alistair Darling's 30-year strategy for the British aviation industry next month.