Stansted targets 25 new global destinations in next five years

It means passengers could soon be able to fly to places such as Delhi, Los Angeles and Singapore from the airport as it targets India, the United States and the Far East.

Bosses say they are looking at places which are in high demand by flyers - who live in the airport's catchment area - but which it does not currently served.

The list includes: Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Montreal, Vancouver, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Kuwait, Manila, Singapore, Columbo, Delhi, Mumbai and Johannesburg.

The airport already serves Boston, New York, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Washington DC and Emirates launched a daily direct flight to Dubai from Stansted earlier this year.

And this week a team of representatives will travel to China to make the case for the airport at the World Routes Conference - the largest global gathering of airlines and airports.

Ken O’Toole, the airport's chief executive, said: "People from across the region, and businesses in particular, regularly tell us they want London Stansted to offer a network of long-haul routes that will connect them to their key countries, customers and markets.

“Stansted sits at the heart of one of the UK’s fastest growing and most successful economic regions, reflecting the competitiveness and ambition of the businesses trading here. We need to demonstrate this strength of demand to airlines who are not currently serving Stansted.

"For example, we know that over 400,000 people are currently travelling from the London Stansted catchment area to Hong Kong each year.

"Another ambition we have is to build a direct connection between the knowledge centres of the technology clusters of Silicon Fen and Silicon Valley – similar to what the flight between the airport and Boston is doing for the two areas of bioscience expertise.

"If we can do this, these passengers will no longer have to make the time-consuming and expensive trips to other airports across the UK."