Speaking at the opening of the new £80 million Pier 5 in North Terminal, chief executive Stewart Wingate said a new second level allows the airport to offer two separate arrival and departure routes for passengers on top of one another.

This not only makes passengers’ journeys easier, but allows the facility and airlines to operate more efficiently.

However, while this might assist the 41 million people expected to use the airport this year and up to 43 million predicted for 2017, Wingate said it is no substitute for a second runway.

“To keep pace with this unprecedented growth, we need to be smart about how we work with our existing infrastructure while we wait for a government decision on airport expansion,” he added.

“Our constraint isn’t so much the terminal buildings, it is the runway. We still deliver 55 movements an hour in our peak periods.”

Development director Raymond Melee said even if the airport was to be granted a second runway, the operator would still be looking to improve efficiency in the meantime.

He added: “Our feeling is even if we won the second runway and if we started work tomorrow, it would still take 10 years to build.”

The revamped pier was opened as Conservative chairman for the Treasury select committee Andrew Tyrie said the economic case for expansion of any airport was yet to be made.

He said the case argued by the Airports commission that Heathrow was best placed to receive a new runway was “opaque” and argued that further analysis by the Treasury may yet reveal an increase in capacity isn’t needed.