Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye has reiterated calls for a capacity boost after the airport witnessed a rapid expansion of its freight business last month.

Mr Holland-Kaye stated that Heathrow now handles a quarter of all UK exports by value and cargo traffic was up 7.8 per cent in September, the Evening Standard reports.

According to the airport's figures, freight to Mexico was up 57.2 per cent, 52.2 per cent to Nigeria, 37.1 per cent to Russia, 25.6 per cent to China and 20.8 per cent to India.

Some 6.8 million passengers used the hub in September - a rise of 0.3 per cent on last year.

"Larger, fuller, quieter aircraft" supported this expansion, with seats per aircraft increasing 0.4 per cent to 204.8 and passengers per aircraft rising 1.5 per cent to 165.9.

Mr Holland-Kaye said: "Heathrow handles a quarter of all British exports by value, but is full. More and more people are asking "how can we double Britain's exports if we don't expand Heathrow?"