STANSTED could be transformed into a four runway airport if the Mayor of London gets his way.
Boris Johnson looks set to include the airport in a £3 million feasibility study into creating a South East airport super-hub.
The Mayor of London is opposed to expansion at Heathrow in west London, and said back in October that he favoured an airport to the east of the capital.
It was widely assumed that his £50 billion "Boris Island" idea in the Thames Estuary was the preferred option, but Stansted has emerged as a strong 'compromise candidate'.
The detailed feasibility study will consider whether Stansted, which currently caters for 17 million passengers a year, could cope if transformed.
In August the Competition Commission ruled airport operator BAA must sell Stansted.
It is thought Mr Johnson is trying to keep Stansted in the spotlight in case the Thames estuary option proves too costly.
But a Stansted Airport spokesman said this week that it plans to expand on the basis of a single-runway infrastructure.
He told the Chronicle: "Our strategy is to fill the available capacity on the current runway.
"The airport has permission and the facilities to serve 35 million passengers a year, but we're currently handling 17 million."
The spokesman said that the airport was campaigning to improve rail journey times between the airport and London and welcomed the announcement of the Davies Commission, the official inquiry into the future of British aviation.
If the plan goes ahead, a super high speed rail link – cutting rail times to London to 25 minutes – would also be built.
But anti-expansion campaigners at Stansted have questioned why the Mayor of London is so opposed to building a third runway at Heathrow.
"You can't just pluck a couple of options out of the air and simply ignore others," said Brian Ross, of Stop Stansted Expansion.
"Boris' policy seems to be 'anywhere but Heathrow'. It makes no financial sense, as so many businesses are located on the M4 corridor.
"Boris is so brazen, so self-confident that he can lull people into thinking Stansted is a viable option for this super-hub, whereas anyone who actually thinks about it knows it's bonkers.
"If this plan gets off the ground it would be a nightmare."
Under Mr Johnson's plans, Heathrow would downsize to a small international airport — it currently serves 70 million passengers a year — as the new hub takes over.
In a written mayoral decision, Mr Johnson said: "This will include a range of technical assessments to enable the feasibility of a number of options, including engineering feasibility, to be properly considered and tested; consideration of surface access implications; environmental impacts; socio-economic impacts and commercial viability."
