Birmingham Airport has announced an ambitious £500m expansion plan to grow passengers numbers by 40% over the next 15 years.

In a bid to become one of Europe's leading regional airports, bosses want to attract 18 million passengers by 2033, up from the current 13 million.

The plan will mean more long and short haul flights, a larger terminal, new aircraft stands but no new runway.

The airport said it was confident airlines would follow demand.

HS2, the £55.7bn planned high-speed rail link, initially running between London and Birmingham by 2026, as well as additional capacity on the West Coast Mainline will help increase passenger numbers, the airport said.

HS2 will cut rail journeys between the airport and central London from the current 70 minutes to 38.

A new junction on the nearby M42 motorway will also benefit those travelling by car, bosses said.

Simon Richards, acting managing director, said: "Over the next 15 years, we will expand and significantly improve the airport to maximise our potential as a single runway airport by investing £500m.

"Our plans take account of our forecast growth and will increase operational efficiency for our airlines and partners and improve the experience for our passengers."

Mr Richards said the growth was achievable despite industry volatility, including the collapse of budget airline Primera Air, which operated out of Birmingham until last month.

"The aviation industry has always been like that," he said.

"Some airlines do come and go, we are conscious of that.

"But we have a set of airline partners with great stability all the way through the economic downturn since 2008 with actually very stable volumes, that's most of [our] airlines partners, and that's the firm foundations on which we'll build."

A 12-week public consultation on the expansion is now under way.