Heathrow airport could apply for a cap on the number of flights allowed to use the airport each year to be lifted.
The airport’s chairman Lord Deighton told The Times that an application might be submitted to have the cap lifted for the four years before a third runway was opened - if it was given the go-ahead.
He told the newspaper an additional 50 flights a day could use the airport and that the move was needed to show Britain was "open for business" after Brexit.
At present up to 480,000 flights are allowed to use Heathrow each year.
The limit was set in 2001 as part of the agreement which allowed Terminal 5 to be built.
However, the actual number of flights using the airport has hovered around 475,000 for the last few years.
Lord Deighton said: "The whole point of it is to respond to how this economy needs to shape itself.
“It would be possible to introduce new regional flights which would connect up some places like Newquay and Liverpool.
"It would be possible to also go to some of those emerging market destinations which everybody uses a bit earlier."
But John Stewart, chair of the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (HACAN), said, "Residents will be dismayed at losing the protection the cap has brought.
"If it is introduced in advance of a third runway, the third runway mitigation measures must also be brought forward."
He explained that if the cap was lifted, HACAN would be pressing for key measures to be introduced, including a tougher night flight regime, the release of the £700 million promised to improve insulation of properties under the flight paths, and a guarantee that the runway alternation currently available to residents in west London will remain.
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