Heathrow bosses have warned there could be extra noise overnight as traffic controllers move into a new state-of-the-art facility this weekend.

Staff will move to the £50million facility at 2am on Saturday when the airport is at its quietest.

But to ease pressure on staff in the new viewing tower chiefs have said they will spread out some of their flights into the early hours or late at night.

Martyn Jeffery, general manager of National Air Traffic Services (NATS) Heathrow, said: "We are reducing the number of landings while our controllers familiarise themselves with the new tower, so that they have less traffic to deal with than is normally the case.

"I'm confident they will quickly build familiarity. Nonetheless, at an airport used as intensively as Heathrow, this means it is possible there will be some delays to flights although we are working very closely with BAA, and with British Airways, BMI and other airlines, to make sure any delay is minimal.

"I know the general public will recognise that their safety is at the heart of all our planning. We have a record at Heathrow for safe and punctual service, and we intend to maintain that record through the biggest air traffic control milestone the airport has ever seen.

"We have a dedicated and utterly professional team of controllers, assistants, engineers and support staff who are all completely committed to a smooth and successful transition."

And Mark Bullock, Heathrow managing director, added: "We acknowledge that for some local residents this will have an effect on the level of aircraft noise that they experience.

"We sincerely apologise for the disturbance to local residents during this necessary change to operations."

Heathrow have announced there will be a small number of flights after 11.30pm and a small number between 5am and 6am.

The move has been planned for two years, as a part of the Terminal 5 expansion, and has involved staff training in a £1.5million simulator alongside working in the old control room.

If you would like to speak to somebody about the noise impact of these works or have an enquiry regarding aircraft noise please call the communications team on 0800 344 844 or email noise_complaints@baa.com