London City Airport has seen narrow, concentrated flight paths for planes taking off and landing since 2016.
This has meant that certain communities in east London suffer with constant noise from aviation traffic serving the airport.
But by the end of this year, the airport is expected to consult on plans which could see its flight paths changed, as part of a wider government-led airspace modernisation programme.
According to John Stewart, a spokesperson for campaign group Hacan East, this could see some people in east London living directly under a flight path for the first time.
“People are worried about noise, especially at London City because it’s built up, it’s densely populated and the airplanes are not that high,” he said.
“What we are calling for is for City to alter the flight paths.
“The same communities who get the planes all the time would then get some relief but obviously it will also mean that some people will get planes possibly for the first time.
“If the flight paths can be varied so that people only get planes for half-the-day or even a third-of-the-day that will make a huge difference to those living under the flight paths right now.”
Mr Stewart added that the airport had recently been given permission to add three more flights between 6.30am and 7am every morning, which would create more noise for those living nearby.
But he described the government’s decision last year to block a bid by the airport to run flights on a Saturday afternoon as a “significant” victory for local people.
At present, no planes are allowed to fly from the airport from 12.30pm on a Saturday afternoon until 12.30pm on a Sunday.
“What the airport wanted to do in order to accommodate new passengers was to operate planes until 6.30pm in the evening on Saturdays,” Mr Stewart explained.
“That was turned down and that was quite significant because the weekend break is appreciated.”
He added that the decision has meant that increased Saturday hours were now “fairly off the table” for the foreseeable future.
London City Airport did not respond to a request for comment.