A team of experts have confirmed that levels of noise pollution created by aeroplanes will not rise, even if double the number of flights travel in and out of the UK in the next 40 years.

According to the Noise Road-Map published by Sustainable Aviation, better planning, new aircraft innovations and smarter land use will actually enable the industry to reduce noise levels by 2050 when compared with 2000.

This is despite the fact that far more passenger and freight services will be flying over the country in the future.

A lot has been made of the UK's apparent lack of runway capacity and it seems inevitable that plans will be introduced to radically increase the number of planes landing on these shores, which has led to concerns about excessive noise.

However, studies have shown that Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Luton and Birmingham airports have already done a good job of reducing noise pollution in the past decade or so.

"This report shows that the UK aviation industry has consistently and successfully improved its noise performance over the years and there is great scope for even further improvement," commented British Airways chief executive Keith Williams.