The government is thought to be revisiting the possibility of a third runway at Heathrow Airport, after discussion on the extent to which the UK will lose out economically by not having direct flights to big Chinese cities.

Tim Yeo, chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, said that the economic case was "overwhelming" and that "Britain is losing out" by not having more direct flights to Asian countries.

He said that greenhouse gas emissions are now within European Union emissions trading system meaning that "increasing runway capacity in the UK has absolutely no impact on the level of aviation emissions."

Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for London, said that these "are not new arguments... but rather new government thinking."

She said an additional runway would have a time lag and if it is so important to ensure strong transport links with Asian countries, what needs to be done is to look at current flight patterns and how slots are allocated, rather than putting in an extra runway.

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