Hundreds of thousands more homes will be blighted by low-flying aircraft when flight paths are redrawn to deal with 1 million extra flights a year over Britain by 2015.

The airspace to be redesigned is the most complex in the world, involving aircraft that use Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and smaller airports such as London City, Northolt, Southend and Biggin Hill.

Several new flight paths will be introduced and National Air Traffic Services (Nats) will create new stacks, in which aircraft circle while waiting for landing slots. Some of Heathrow’s present four stacks are likely to be moved.

Hundreds of thousands of homes in London and the Home Counties will be affected by the changes, which are due to come into force by 2009.

The changes are being made because Terminal Control North airspace has almost reached its capacity. Nats handled 2.4 million flights last year and, on the present trend of 4 per cent growth a year, will handle 3.4 million by 2015.

The Government is supporting the expansion of dozens of airports to allow passenger numbers to double by 2030 to 470 million a year, an average of eight flights per person.

Nats is attempting to avoid a long public debate over the changes by claiming that they have nothing to do with plans to build new runways at Heathrow and Stansted.

Public inquiries will be held into the runway plans and those affected can have their cases heard by an independent planning inspector. But people affected by the airspace changes will be able only to write letters of complaint, and the plans are unlikely to change significantly.

Nats will hold a 12-week “public consultation” towards the end of this year before asking the Civil Aviation Authority to make a final decision.

It is obliged to seek the public’s views on any new flight paths lower than 7,000ft or over national parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Colin Stanbury, a consultant who advises local authorities on the impact of aircraft noise, said: “The airspace redesign will almost certainly lead to an expansion in the total land mass that’s overflown.”

He said that the redesign could also result in more neighbourhoods sharing the burden of low flights.

Simon Hocquard, head of strategy at Nats, said that the air traffic control company had a legal obligation to provide enough capacity to meet the expansion plans of airlines. “More and more people want to fly and we have to service that. We look ahead 10 years at all times to try and determine what is needed.”

He said that Nats was also required to minimise delays caused by air traffic control. Some flight paths were unable to cope with the volume of traffic, causing controllers to delay aircraft from taking off.

Mr Hocquard said that the changes would benefit the environment because aircraft would be able to fly more direct routes, burning less fuel.

An industry source said that some of Heathrow’s stacks were likely to move farther away from the airport to accommodate more aircraft. The stacks start at about 7,000ft and rise up to 15,000ft, holding up to eight aircraft.

Nats claims that aircraft begin to cause disturbance only below 7,000ft. But James Bentham, an airspace planning expert, said that aircraft could be heard in tranquil areas at heights of up to 20,000ft.When flight paths have been redrawn in other areas residents have complained of being misled about the impact.

The CAA has been forced to review new flight paths over Dedham Vale in East Anglia after residents took their case to the High Court and won an admission that the number of flights had been “significantly greater” than predicted.

John Stewart of ClearSkies, which campaigns on behalf of residents under flight paths, said: “This redesign could damage the quality of life of people across the South East and it is unacceptable for Nats to consult the public in such a minimal way. If someone was building a motorway near your home you would expect more than just a three-month consultation. Nats is effectively proposing motorways in the skies.”

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