Eight residents of Richmond, Kingston, and other boroughs under Heathrow flight-paths brought the test case to Strasbourg after all their attempts to get a good night's sleep through the British courts failed.

The court has accepted the group's argument that their right to a good night's sleep is impinged by night flights and has asked the Government to provide more evidence that night flights are essential for the economic well-being of the country.

Few cases reach the court and even fewer are considered fully and John Stewart, chairman of pressure group HACAN ClearSkies, speaking to the Comet from a train on his way home, said: "We are really pleased because we do feel this may signal an end of night flights."

Liz Harris, who lives in Kew between two runways, said: "It's not so much we can't get to sleep as that we are woken at 4.30am and it is hard to get to sleep again at that hour.

"We have had double glazing fitted in all our bedrooms and can never sleep with the window open. You can imagine what that is like during the summer."

A government spokesman said: "We are arguing that night flights are necessary for the economic well-being of the aviation industry both locally and nationally and for passengers themselves.

"We are trying to find a balance: night flights do cause disturbance and we try to mitigate it but we have to weigh it up against the outcome if we ban them completely." But Richmond Park MP Jenny Tonge said: "We have been campaigning against this for 25 years. It is commerce, that Great God Commerce that must be worshipped.

"Of course the country has to make money but we have to balance that with environmental concerns." Governments across Europe will be studying the case's outcome with interest as it could have implications for other airports but a decision is not expected for several months while the court consider submissions from government lawyers.