1300 public submissions on new Brisbane airport flight paths
More than 1300 people have flooded authorities with feedback on plans to spread plane noise at Brisbane Airport across more suburbs.
The national air traffic manager has been flooded with more than 1300 public submissions on proposed new flight paths at Brisbane Airport designed to spread the burden of plane noise.
It comes as the airport asked for feedback on a masterplan which will add more than 400 plane movements a day over the next two decades.
Airservices Australia said it wanted to reduce the impact of multiple flight paths over the most-affected communities by moving some routes to other areas.
“While this reduces the impact on some communities, we acknowledge this shifts flights over others,’’ a spokeswoman said.
“Overall, however, the aim is a fairer sharing of Brisbane Airport operations.’’
People in Redland, Bribie Island and Samford would be better off, noisy turboprops would be made to take new routes over Moreton Bay and some aircraft would fly higher for longer before descending.
But some of the new routes pushed planes further west, potentially affecting suburbs such as Kenmore.
“The proposed flight paths, which form part of Airservices’ Noise Action Plan for Brisbane, were developed after extensive industry and community engagement,’’ the spokeswoman said.
“The submissions will now be reviewed to understand community support for the various proposed options and to ascertain any design improvements.’’
Submissions on the flight paths closed on Sunday after Airservices last month unveiled proposed tweaks.
Brisbane-based Greens MP Elizabeth Watson-Brown said while the new flight paths meant some people would be better off they did not actually “fix anything’’.
“Tinkering with flight paths is not good enough,’’ she said.
“The solution lies in a cap on total flights per hour, a 10pm to 6am flight curfew and a massive investment in high-speed rail to relieve long-term demand for domestic flights.
“I am concerned that the proposed change to eastern departures adds more flights to an already busy departure path over the westside and I’ve been encouraging locals to make submissions to Airservices accordingly.”
So far there have been only 42 public submissions on the airport masterplan, but it did not close until October 30.
“With 25 million passengers using Brisbane Airport each year and Queensland’s population sitting at 5.6 million, we’re eager to hear from more people to help shape the future of the state’s most important transport gateway,” BAC head of airport planning Michael Jarvis said.
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Currently the airport handled 615 movements per day, on average.
Based on population growth, that was forecast to rise to 1046 per day by 2046. BAC did not expect freight traffic to grow significantly.
Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance chair, Professor Marcus Foth, said total aircraft movements over the greater Brisbane area would reach 1600 flights a day if Archerfield Airport was included.
BAC’s expansion plans included a third terminal by 2031 and land would be set aside for future runway extensions, he said.
“This is the result of two decades of aggressive growth and expansion pursued by Brisbane Airport that will turn the city into an ‘aerotropolis’,’’ he said.
“It locks us into a future of more flights, more noise and more disruption for communities across southeast Queensland.
He also claimed the masterplan would make Brisbane the nation’s overnight freight network
hub, with the heaviest flows between 7pm and 6am. Sydney had no overnight freight as it had a curfew.
Mr Jarvis said Sydney had 15 freight flights during the day time, vastly more than Brisbane.
“Brisbane Airport currently carries 10 per cent of the nation’s freight exports and 8 per cent of imports,’’ he said.
“Brisbane has just one dedicated international freight service per week, with the vast majority of freight travelling in the belly of passenger aircraft.
“The movement of freight and urgent deliveries supports jobs, small businesses and communities right across Queensland.”
Prof Foth claimed the draft masterplan relied on outdated noise “contour’’ mapping, based on two years of noise data, which failed to capture the full extent of aircraft overflights or the true distance that noise travelled.
“We are calling on greater Brisbane residents to lodge a submission on the masterplan,’’ he said.
“Together, we can demand a fairer, healthier future for Brisbane’s communities.’’
BFPCA was currently working on an independent economic study into the true costs and benefits of a legislated night curfew and a documentary highlighting the human toll of aircraft noise.
It also planned to lodge a formal breach report with the federal government, alleging Airservices flight paths breached the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
