Without this, we would be pretty much locked into a slow growth

Geoff Muirhead Manchester Airport chief executive

It is also predicted to transform the area's economy, creating 68,000 jobs locally and 177,000 nationally by 2015, when it is expected to be generating over �4bn annually.

Airport chief executive Geoff Muirhead said the new runway was vital to the north west region.

"This is our future," he said

"Without this, we would be pretty much locked into a slow growth that would not meet the demands of the north west.

"We'd see jobs lost and we'd see investment lost. With it we can look forward to a bright future."

Passenger targets

Manchester Airport handles 18.5 million passengers a year but it aims to increase that to 40.7 million by 2015 with the help of the new runway.

Gatwick has 30 million passengers annually, second only to Heathrow's 60 million.

A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport's management team said their figures showed that of the two million passengers flying from Manchester to London, half did so to catch ongoing flights.

The airport hopes to capture a large proportion of this market by providing more direct flights to Continental Europe and the US.

It also hopes to attract passengers from the Midlands, Scotland, the West Country and Yorkshire, who might before have travelled from London terminals.

The new runway only proceeded after a 101-day public inquiry and fierce opposition, which resulted in a six-month occupation of the site by tree-dwellers and tunnellers.

It is part of a �1bn investment programme at the airport and should be operating by February next year.