British airports operator BAA says it plans to spend £8.1 billion over the next 11 years to cope with a forecast surge in passenger numbers.
But the operator of the world's busiest international airport Heathrow shed no light on whether new runways would be built to deal with an expected 46 per cent passenger increase.
The British government is expected to publish a paper some time over the summer listing the options for London's airport capacity. In January, it would not comment on reports that three new runways might be built to cope with rising demand in southeast England but, tellingly, it did not deny them.
BAA's three London airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - have just four runways between them, while TBI's London Luton Airport adds a fifth.
A BAA spokesman said today the company had provided technical and factual information to the government but would not make its own views known until the paper was published.
BAA's announcement was timed to coincide with its opening of a £60-million extension to Stansted airport, northeast of London.
It said it would spend another £600 million at Stansted if it obtains permission to grow capacity.
BAA forecast passenger numbers at its three London airports would increase by an average 3.5 per cent over the next 11 years to 153 million in 2012/13 from 104.9 million in 2001/02.
PA