Councillors are calling on Manchester Airport bosses to prove they really need a new 800-space car park before they consider giving it the go-ahead.
An attempt to secure permission for a new car park in Moss Lane, Styal, failed to secure enough votes at Cheshire East Council's northern planning committee meeting on Wednesday.
The board then agreed that airport bosses should come back to the council with a fuller explanation of why they need the new car park and if there are no suitable alternatives.
Andrew Murray, representing the airport, told councillors that the scheme is 'wholly in line with policy' - and it would be built on the last piece of the airport's operational area in Cheshire East.
"It is pertinent that there have been no local objections to this application," he added.
"This is largely in part due to the constant dialogue that we have with those local communities."
The airport wants the new car park to reduce the number of 'kiss and fly' and taxi passenger drop-offs - which currently make up 52 per cent of passenger journeys to the airport.
It claimed a recent reduction in third-party parking provision and a lack of 24-hour public transport links meant that the new car parking facility was needed.
But the site sits in Cheshire East's green belt - and the council declared a climate emergency in May, meaning environmental concerns are now kept in mind when major decisions are made.
Cllr Andrew Gregory, Conservative member for Sutton, said: "For me it is a disappointment that given this council's commitment to [tackling] climate change that we are in a position where we are looking like considering granting an application that will result in loss of green belt and more use of cars.
"I went for a walk in that area last Sunday and you are just struck by how important that whole area is around Styal and the massive impact and encroachment the airport has on that area."
But Cllr Brian Puddicombe, Labour member for Macclesfield South, admitted there are a lack of public transport links to the airport from his ward - meaning he relies on the car when going on holiday.
"If there was a train option from Macclesfield I would almost certainly take it," he added.
A vote to approve the plans was defeated by five votes to four, with two abstentions, before councillors agreed to defer them by nine votes to one, with one abstention.
Airport bosses submitted a similar proposal for Moss Lane in 2005.
That scheme was knocked back by the former Macclesfield Borough Council the following year for eight reasons - including the suggestion that the car park would encourage more people to drive to and from the airport, rather than use public transport.
Manchester Airport took that decision to appeal, but Macclesfield's decision was upheld by the Planning Inspectorate in 2007.
