British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh has called for UK airports owner BAA to be forced to increase the amount of passengers and planes it can handle, the Guardian reports.

The Competition Commission is currently reviewing whether BAA - which owns seven UK airports including Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted near London and Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland - operates a monopoly.

Whilst airlines such as Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic are pressing for the company, which is owned by Spanish construction group Ferrovial, to be broken up, BA is calling for BAA to be set new mandatory targets to increase capacity, in order to prevent the chaos and overcrowding which has hit Heathrow in particular.

In an interview with the newspaper, Mr. Walsh said: 'If BAA gave commitments to capacity development and if the regulatory regime required them to deliver on those commitments, that may be an acceptable alternative and more practical alternative to them breaking up.' He added that a break-up of BAA should only be a last resort because of the disruption which would result.

A spokesman for BAA told the newspaper: 'We share BAs' concerns about capacity. It is the key to improving the experience of passengers. Lack of capacity is at the heart of the problems facing airports in the South East.'