A cross-party group of MPs has backed the government's plans to increase airport capacity.

In a report published on Wednesday members of the transport committee also called for and end to BAA's airport monopoly.

Crucially, the MPs rejected criticism that government policy was based on a crude philosophy of "predict and provide".

Earlier this year transport secretary Alistair Darling unveiled the government's green paper on the future of the airline industry.

The industry has undergone massive changes over the last decade and faces a massive increase in passenger numbers - boosted by the rise of budget fliers.

The committee called for the government to focus on expanding existing facilities rather than building new airports around the UK.

Focusing on Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick was a "viable and more practicable solution" than proposals such as building a new airport at Cliffe in Kent.

"We suggest that the government could minimise the heritage and ecological impacts of expanding airports by making best use of existing facilities, expanding existing airports on a case by case basis and dismissing the construction of new major airports on greenfield sites," they said.

BAA was singled out for criticism because MPs believed it had changed its views on building a third runway at Heathrow.

"It is ineffective and inappropriate to have a single private sector operator controlling such a large part of our aviation infrastructure," the committee said.

"The government must not assume that extra capacity in the South East should be provided by BAA.

"In our view it would be more appropriate to break up its monopoly.''

And the Civil Aviation Authority, which regulates the UK airline industry, was censured for failing to set out a suitable framework for developing airports.

Calls from environmental campaigners for a tax on aviation fuel was dismissed as not being "feasible".

But one member of the committee, Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Tom Brake, claimed MPs had let the government off the hook.

"The government will have to deploy a comprehensive range of measures, from lobbying for an international fuel tax to setting targets for rail substitution and auctioning off slots, to make a convincing case that its policy is anything other than 'predict and provide'," he said.

"The report makes it clear that BAA, with its dominant market share, is unable or unwilling to take the lead in providing more capacity.

"Time must surely be running out on BAA's monopoly. We need some real competition in airport services in the South East."