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Airports operator BAA has plans to install a new full-length runway at Heathrow airport, according to reports.

The company is intending to lobby the government for a new 4,000-metre landing strip rather than a short runway, as had previously been intended, according to the Times.

A new full-size runway at the hub would increase its potential to serve large, long-haul aircraft.

However the plans are likely to meet with a hostile reaction from environmentalists and local homeowners.

An executive from the aviation industry told the Times: "They [BAA] are pushing hard on a full-length runway, which I find difficult to understand.

"I think it is because they think, possibly rightly, that getting any new runway at Heathrow is going to be a monumental battle, so they may as well go the whole way."

BAA recently announced that, despite the environmental protests at Heathrow in August, the airport handled a record 6.4m passengers, 6.5% more than in July.

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