AIR traffic in the UK could be doubled by 2050 without a substantial increase in pollution, Heathrow's owners claimed today.
Heathrow Airport said greener planes and more efficient flight patterns meant expansion was possible without breaching climate change targets.
Keeping Heathrow as a hub airport, with more long-haul flights, was the greenest option available, it argued.
Expanding Stansted or building a new Thames Estuary airport would mean passengers having to travel further from home or work, increasing their carbon footprint, according to Heathrow.
Without a hub airport, meanwhile, UK passengers would have to change at EU airports, increasing emissions due to the extra landings and take-offs, it said.
The claims came in the airport's response, published today (Thursday, May 16), to the Airports Commission's aviation and climate change discussion paper.
Matt Gorman, Heathrow's sustainability director, said: "Our submission argues it is possible to grow the UK's hub airport, Heathrow, without exceeding the UK's long-term climate change targets.
"This is thanks to exciting advances made by the aviation industry across technology, operational procedures and sustainable fuels which have changed the impact of this industry for the better and will continue to do so in the future."
Heathrow pointed to figures from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) showing airlines' fuel efficiency had already increased by 70 per cent in the last 40 years.
But John Stewart, chairman of anti Heathrow expansion campaign group HACAN, accused the airport's owners of putting too much faith in new technology.
"Right now we have no guarantee planes will get clean enough or quiet enough to allow for significant expansion of Heathrow," he added.
