A consultation has been launched over plans to alter flight paths from Edinburgh Airport.

It comes after the trial of one new flight path was cut short two months early last October due to a large number of complaints about noise.

The consultation will last 14 weeks and will be followed by a second stage in December when future flight path options will be unveiled.

The airport's chief executive, Gordon Dewar, said on Monday: "We need to modernise and improve Edinburgh Airport in a way that maximises the benefits across Scotland and minimises the impact on local communities.

"The objective of the first stage of the consultation is to gain responses from the public that will help us inform the design of any potential future flight paths.

"We want everyone to know they have the opportunity to have their say on the positioning of potential future flight path changes."

Due to "strong levels of growth", its owners said the airport needs to reassess its airspace requirements which were designed in the 1970s.

As part of its attempts to address this growth, the airport trialled the TUTUR departure route - which involved planes flying adjacent to the A899 road before turning towards the Firth of Forth - between June and October 2015.

Mr Dewar added: "We are absolutely committed to undertaking a robust and meaningful consultation process; to give stakeholders even greater confidence we have commissioned the Consultation Institute to conduct a quality assurance of our consultation process.

"This time last year we were - justifiably in some cases - criticised for not engaging thoroughly enough with our neighbouring communities before running a flight path trial.

"We've learned our lessons and this time round will do all that we reasonably can to ensure that everyone has their say on the future growth of Edinburgh Airport."