Businesses hope to reap the benefits of airport expansion despite the prospect of a second runway at Stansted Airport being dashed.

The Airports Commission announced Gatwick and Heathrow as its preferred sites for new runways in a report published last week.

But Stansted, which currently handles 18million passengers each year, has the capacity to deal with as many as 45million people with its existing single runway.

Simon Amos, who runs Braintree-based private car hire service Amos Travel, said: “Stansted needs to expand fullstop, whether there is a new runway or not.

“The report is a shame, but let’s hope it expands anyway and we get some big companies and airlines in there because it is on the doorstep of London."