A NEW swathe of residential areas could be blighted by aircraft noise and pollution for the first time after regulators warned there is not enough airspace to cope with airport expansion in southeast England.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and National Air Traffic Services (NATS) say expansion in the southeast “would not [leave] sufficient airspace capacity to accommodate the scale of predicted traffic growth on the basis of current and predicted technology”.

Families in the south Midlands and East Anglia face the prospect of planes circling above their homes if ministers proceed with plans to build new runways at Heathrow and Stansted.

Experts believe new queuing “stacks” will have to be created to deal with the overspill from London’s crowded skies. The capital’s airspace is already among the most congested in the world, with 1.4m flights over London last year.

A third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow will lead to 225,000 extra flights a year by 2030.

The CAA and NATS warning came in a submission to the Competition Commission, which is examining BAA, the company that runs Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. The Guild of Air Traffic Control Officers said the new stacks would be in addition to a reorganisation of flight paths announced last month.

A Department of Transport spokesperson said safety was the Government's top priority and it had worked with both the CAA and NATS to develop proposals for a third runway at Heathrow.

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