Pilots oppose flight noise reduction plan for Brisbane

Airline pilots have raised safety concerns about a plan to send more flights over the bay in order to ‘make less noise over a particular suburb’.

Virgin Australia flight taking off from Brisbane Airport’s second runway. Picture: Beau Chenery

Airline pilots could sink attempts to reduce aircraft noise over Brisbane, after raising safety concerns over a plan to send more flights over Moreton Bay away from residential areas.

Airservices Australia has applied to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to increase the tailwind landing limit for incoming planes from 5 to 7 knots to allow more flights to come in over the bay.

The move is in response to intensive lobbying from inner-city residents who have been subjected to increased aircraft noise since the opening of Brisbane Airport’s second runway in mid-2020.

CASA last year rejected an application to lift the tailwind landing limit to 10 knots and the 7100-member Australian Airline Pilots Association (AusALPA) said even 7 knots was too much.

AusALPA President Tony Lucas said 5kts was the international standard for a reason.

“Ideally, aircraft takeoff and land with a headwind as it is safer and more efficient,” said Captain Lucas.

“What pilots and passengers don’t need is to be landing with higher ground speed and increased risk. Normalising tailwind operations reduces the capacity of our members to operate as safely as international standards require.”

He said numerous studies highlighted the fact almost half of all runway overruns or runway incidents occurred with tailwinds in excess of 5kts.

And although a 2kt increase did not seem like much, Captain Lucas said combined with a stiff crosswind it could change the landing environment very quickly and for the worse.

“We do have to accept some degree of tailwind with our operation and we acknowledge that’s the reality of aviation and the environmental conditions we face,” Captain Lucas said.

“But to increase the risk to crew and passengers so we can make less noise over a particular suburb, is something I don't think pilots should have to accept.”

Captain Lucas said there were other ways to reduce aircraft noise over inner Brisbane, with current flight paths for the parallel runway “dragging them in quite low and slow early”.

“To be honest I don’t think some of (the flight paths) are very efficient,” he said.

“Ultimately for us, we essentially align with the runway on a 10-mile (18km) final approach and we can fly aeroplanes quite smoothly and relatively quietly until we get to about 4-miles (7km) and from then on we’re at the normal approach speed. The design of the approaches doesn’t allow us to be as quiet as we would like to be.”

The issue of aircraft noise in inner Brisbane was expected to intensify as international flights returned to the city, and newly elected Greens MP Max Chandler-Mather pushed for a curfew on the airport.

Brisbane Airport Corporation was adamant a curfew would prove economically and socially disastrous and supported moves to send more flights over Moreton Bay.

“We believe we can improve aircraft impacts without constraining the operations of the airport,” said BAC head of public affairs Stephen Beckett.

“If we can get more planes flying and out over the bay, it helps the community, protects jobs and keeps Queensland moving.”

Originally published as Pilots oppose flight noise reduction plan for Brisbane