It is known as the Flushing Climb — an airplane route born 23 years ago to prevent planes taking off at La Guardia Airport from disturbing fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium during the United States Open.

But the Federal Aviation Administration, as part of an effort to deal with congested airspace, has quietly approved for much more frequent use a version of the route in which planes, rather than fanning out, fly a narrower, more precise path. This has infuriated residents of Queens living underneath, who contend they had no say in the change and that the noise has become unbearable.

The F.A.A., however, concluded that the noise impact of the narrower route, christened the Tennis Climb, was permissible, even though the agency conducted a six-month test run last year — without telling the public — that yielded a flood of complaints. Part of the problem in determining who is right is that there are not enough noise monitors in New York, unlike other cities, to accurately track the cumulative impact of the noise, some elected officials said.

For many officials, activists and New Yorkers, the F.A.A.’s move was yet another example of what they see as the agency’s overriding community anguish in pursuit of its own ends. They fear that airplane noise will worsen as more planes fill the skies, and that the public will have little recourse.