Hopes for a dramatic increase in passengers using Birmingham International Airport have been dashed by the recession, its chief executive says.

Paul Kehoe, who took over running the airport last July, said growth had ground to a halt and may not pick up until 2012.

He admitted the airport was expected to miss its target of reaching 18 million passengers by 2017. But it should still press ahead with plans to extend its runway, to allow it to introduce long-haul flights, he said.

Giving evidence to a Commons inquiry, Mr Kehoe said many airports were suffering even more than Birmingham. But it would not be possible to meet a target he had been set when he became chief executive.

He told MPs: “What we are seeing in the UK as a whole is a decline in traffic. If you look at the statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority website, the trend over the past three months is down ten per cent. So Manchester is down ten per cent, Gatwick down ten per cent.

“Birmingham is flatter at the moment, and there’s only one reason why Birmingham is flat and that’s the arrival of Ryanair, who came in last summer. That actually stabilised our traffic. So we are at zero growth at the moment.”

He added: “In terms of our business plan and 2017, I think we are going to be ambitious and say 18 million by 2020 now, all things being equal, and the start of growth will occur in 2011/2012.”

Mr Kehoe ruled out building a second runway in the near future but said the airport must press ahead with plans to extend its existing runway. “It is going to be very difficult in the current environmental climate to have a second runway. We’ve looked at that, in terms of the analysis we’ve done, and in terms of the traffic loading by 2030, there is no requirement for a second runway.

“So I think it’s prudent of us to continue our plans based on the single runway approach, and the reason that we are seeking that longer runway is to give Birmingham that flexibility to fly to more distant places.”

He also hinted that the airport might consider scrapping one of its terminals.