Airport expansion at Stansted alone would be "disastrous" for the aviation industry, British Airways chiefs have warned.

The company argued that while two new runways in the South East would generate up to £65 million for the UK economy, expansion at Stansted would only benefit smaller airlines and not long-haul flight operators.

"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," said BA's director of government and industry, Andrew Cahn.

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

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

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

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

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

It is expected that the number of UK air passengers will rise to 300 million by 2030.

Transport secretary Alistair Darling is expected to make an announcement over airport expansion later this month.

"There is no decision on it [the runways proposals report]," insisted a Department for Transport spokesman. "We are still a couple of weeks off that."