Heathrow Airport has unveiled three options for a new runway, saying each one would be "quicker and cheaper" than plans for a rival hub airport.
The airport's submission to the Davies Commission, which is looking at raising airport capacity, outlined a runway to the north, north-west or south-west of the existing airport.
It said fewer people would be affected by noise than were currently.
But environmentalists criticised proposals for Heathrow expansion.
London Mayor Boris Johnson said thinking Heathrow could be the major hub London needed was "crackers".
Just a year ago, government officials said the idea of a third runway was "dead and buried", but it is now "very much back on the table", said BBC transport correspondent Richard Westcott
'Global hub status'Heathrow chief executive Colin Matthews said: "After half a century of vigorous debate but little action, it is clear the UK desperately needs a single hub airport with the capacity to provide the links to emerging economies which can boost UK jobs, GDP and trade.
"It is clear that the best solution for taxpayers, passengers and business is to build on the strength we already have at Heathrow."
I've just been looking back through my notes from last year, when I talked to government officials about the prospect of building a third runway at Heathrow.
They told me it was "dead and buried" and said they'd look at "all ideas bar a third runway". Back then we also had a Transport Secretary, Justine Greening, who lived under the flight path and had campaigned against the plan.
What a difference to today, when a third runway at the UK's biggest and busiest airport is very much back on the table.
This is a big week for airports. By Friday, we'll know all the different suggestions on how they could expand.
But don't let all this apparent momentum fool you. This is one of the thorniest issues in politics, and there are plenty in the industry who think that 20 years from now, nothing will have actually been done.
He continued: "Today we are showing how that vision can be achieved while keeping the impact on local residents to an absolute minimum."
In a statement, a spokesman for Heathrow said building a new runway would deliver extra capacity at the airport by 2025-29.
He also said the move would allow Heathrow to operate 740,000 flights a year, up from the current limit of 480,000.
The plans would "maintain the UK's global hub status for foreseeable future" and "protect the thriving businesses and plentiful jobs that surround Heathrow", he said.
According to the submission, Heathrow's preferred options would be to place a new runway to the north-west or the south-west of the airport.
This is because these options would "deliver a full-length third runway while minimising the impact on the local community".
The option of building north of the airport would be the quickest and cheapest, the airport acknowledged - but it would be nosier and have the biggest impact on residential property.
David Learmount, of aviation experts Flightglobal, said expanding Heathrow was the "most disastrous" option in terms of air pollution and noise, but it was the best short-term solution.
He said the best long-term options were large hub airports at Gatwick or Stansted, while the Thames Estuary plan could also work but would "take ages" to build.
"The ultimate solution is a four-runway airport that has 24-hour operation, which Heathrow doesn't have," he said.
A hub airport is one used by many passengers for connections to other airports, and Mr Learmount said the UK economy would be "harmed dramatically" if Heathrow expansion were blocked and no replacement hub built.
All airports must submit their plans to the commission by 19 July.
'No runways needed'On Monday London Mayor Mr Johnson published details of three possible replacement hubs - an artificial island in the Thames Estuary (dubbed "Boris Island"), a major expansion at Stansted, or an airport at the Isle of Grain in north Kent.
"Anyone who believes there would be the space to do that at Heathrow, which already blights the lives of hundreds of thousands of Londoners, is quite simply crackers," he said.
But Nic Ferriday, of Airport Watch, which opposes airport expansion that might harm the environment, said claims that the UK needs a bigger airport hub "have become a mantra for vested interests based on hype".
"There is currently no shortage of runway capacity in south-east England and more 'interchange' capacity, which is what hubs airports facilitate, has no appreciable economic benefit to the UK," he said.
Friends of the Earth head of campaigns Andrew Pendleton added: "The region doesn't need more airport capacity; London already has more flights to the world's top business centres than any of its European competitors."
The Davies Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, was set up last year to examine "the need for additional UK airport capacity and recommend to government how this can be met in the short, medium and long term".
It is expected to recommend options by the end of this year, but will not submit its final report until summer 2015 - after the next general election.
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