Ten climate change protesters have been arrested after they attempted to shut down a private airport by lying across the entrance road and chaining themselves to the gate.

The group were complaining about the growth in the number of people using private jets as opposed to scheduled flights.

Richard George, 26, spokesman for the protestors, said earlier that they had chained themselves to the gate at the only passenger entrance at Biggin Hill Airport, Kent, and were lying across the only access road.

“This is a protest against the super-rich with their own planes who are putting two fingers up to attempts by the rest of us who try to cut our carbon emissions by saying they will not only continue to fly, but they will fly in the most carbon inefficient way possible," he said.

“The people who have turned up for work have been met by representatives of the airport and have been driven away presumably to a staff entrance,” he said.

“A few passengers have turned up who have been turned away by police and security."

Scotland Yard said that it had received a call about the protest at 6.48 this morning. Eleven people had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

A spokesman said: “Officers attended and spoke with demonstrators who refused to leave the site. They were warned in compliance with the criminal justice and public order act, that their failure to comply could lead their arrest.”

He said three of the people arrested had locked themselves to the main gate at the airport and were removed by specialist staff after they had been given protective clothing.

Four of the people arrested had locked themselves together in front of the main gate remain in place and the police spend some time working to remove them.

The remaining three arrested were not locked to anyone or anything. All were being taken to various west London Police stations.

The protesters come from the climate change camp near Heathrow which is threatening a day of action on Sunday. Mr George stressed that the group had no plans to prevent passengers flying out of Heathrow.

“This is not the sort of thing that will be happening at Heathrow. We have no intention of shutting down Heathrow. That is a very different situation,” he said.

A spokesman for Hampshire police said climate change demonstrators were also staging a protest at Farnborough Airport but the airport remained open.

“We have a similar protest taking place at Farnborough Airport involving 18 peaceful protesters at the main entrance to the airport.They are causing minimum disruption to the services,” he said.

Biggin Hill Airport played a key role in the Second World War when it was a busy RAF base and was used as an air station during the Battle of Britain.

In the 1970s it was acquired by Bromley council and operated as a civil airport with up to 200,000 light aircraft flights per year.

It is now dedicated to business aviation operators who use it as a convenient way of flying executive clients into London, which is 12 miles away.

According the airport’s website it handles a variety of aircraft, from the smallest single-engined private Piper up to larger jets including Gulfstream, Embraer, Boeing, Cessna and Bombardier.

Farnborough airport chief executive Brandon O’Reilly said: “I got a call about 7.30am to say that there was a protest going on.

“We have about 10 or 11 chaps lying on the ground in front of one of the security gates, but the airport is operating normally. It’s a peaceful protest. The police are here and there is no trouble.”

Farnborough, which hosts a major international air show every two years, has about 100 flights a day involving private jets.

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