Planning controls at George Best Belfast City Airport limiting the number of passengers and aircraft movements are set to be relaxed, it emerged today.

It is understood that a new draft planning agreement has been produced, and is currently being examined by interested parties.

It is believed that the revised agreement will contain two key changes:

l Cap on seats for sale per annum to be raised from three million inbound and outbound to four million.

l Limit on aircraft movements to be increased from 45,000 a year to 48,000.

The draft planning agreement has been produced by the Department of the Environment on foot of an Examination in Public which was held in June 2006.

It is understood that the planning agreement will be finalised shortly and details made public.

Neither the DoE nor Belfast City Airport had any immediate comment to make.

It is understood that the increase in aircraft movements is unlikely to mean additional flights in the short term, because the 45,000 figure omitted light aircraft. Under the terms of the new criteria, every aircraft movement will be included in the count.

Crucially, the night-time curfew at City Airport remains sacrosanct, barring any scheduled arrivals or departures between 9.30pm and 6.30am.

In a bid to allay the concerns of local residents, the airport has installed noise monitoring equipment and flightpath recorders.

Passenger numbers at City Airport amounted to 2.2 million last year, and the total is projected to hit 2.7 million this year — although demand for air travel is currently softening as fares go up.

In a separate move, City Airport is planning to apply for permission to extend its runway to accommodate longer distance flights.

Meanwhile. it is expected that the airport’s new owner will be named next month following its sale by current owner Ferrovial.