The move, prompted by the continued expansion of Gungahlin, is expected to shift the departure flight paths for those heading west after taking off from the airport’s main runway.

Canberra Airport's planning and government relations director Noel McCann said the result would be jet aircraft flying to Melbourne and Adelaide would turn west a further 3.5 kilometres north of the existing flight paths. The turn for Perth would be moved a marginal distance.

Mr McCann said the new procedure for runway 35 was undergoing an environmental assessment and was expected to be approved by Airservices Australia and take effect by November.

The move to create a geographic waypoint where pilots could begin their arc would have an added noise abatement effect for Gungahlin residents, as it would do away with flight paths that in some cases (due to differing take-off performance) allow jets to turn and fly directly over established suburbs, provided they have reached a height of about 2300 metres.

"The airport has worked consistently with the community and the aviation industry, including Airservices Australia, over many years to achieve this outcome," Mr McCann said.

Member for Fraser Andrew Leigh has backed the proposal for the past two years and said it was a proactive move, given Gungahlin's growth.

"I'm concerned over the next decade this [expansion towards flight corridors] might affect thousands of Gungahlin residents," Dr Leigh said. "We're literally talking about turning the jet a few seconds later, so it's just a matter of better to be safe than sorry, and to recognise this is one of Canberra's growth corridors."

The Gungahlin region has recorded the largest growth for the ACT in the past two decades, expanding from 3755 residents in 1993 to 53,477 in late 2012.

The ACT government has plans to sell land for more than 3000 dwellings in the area by 2017-18, from far-northern suburbs of Jacka, Taylor and Moncrieff to the eastern suburbs of Throsby and Kenny. The first 400 dwellings in Throsby are scheduled for release in 2015-16, with no release dates yet provided for Kenny, the Gungahlin suburb closest to the "high-noise corridor" north of the airport.

Gungahlin Community Council president Ewan Brown said the move to distance the earliest turnpoint was welcome, although he was not aware of current community concern on the issue, with aircraft noise "almost an unusual event" at his own residence in Ngunnawal.

"Where I am in Ngunnawal there can be noticeable noise if the environment conditions are right," he said. "It would be noticeable but not very disruptive."

Mr Brown said the council may include an aircraft noise question in its survey to residents later this year, and the plans to grow Canberra Airport as a freight hub - outlined in the airport's preliminary draft master plan - would also be watched closely.