Preliminary flight paths for the new multibillion-dollar Western Sydney Airport will be released next month, prompting a push for the federal government to roll out sound-proofing insulation for homes set to be disrupted by aircraft noise.
More than six years after a single merge point for planes over any urban area was ruled out, residents and businesses near the new 24-hour international airport will get an insight into forecast aircraft noise impacts in June when an online tool showing the preliminary flight paths is released.
Rolling paddocks have been levelled to build the airport’s runway.Credit: Brook Mitchell
It will allow residents to plug in the location of homes to check the forecast intensity and frequency of plane noise when the airport opens in late 2026.
Blue Mountains Labor mayor Mark Greenhill said his council, which campaigned for years against construction of the airport, would now turn its attention to the disruption from aircraft noise.
“The previous Coalition government’s tactic was to hold back the flight paths for as long as possible … so that people got drunk on the idea of jobs [created by the airport’s construction] before the flight paths were released,” he said.
“The fight to stop the thing is lost but the fight to protect the Blue Mountains has not stopped. The fight now is really focused on the flight paths and environmental and noise impacts.”
The contentious subject of the airport’s flight paths will also be outlined in greater detail in a draft environmental assessment, which the federal government will release in the second half of this year.
NSW Labor MP Stephen Bali, a former Blacktown mayor and an outspoken critic of the airport, said the federal government needed to put in place measures such as double-glazing of windows in houses to reduce noise for residents.
“The precedent has been set where the houses around Mascot [airport] all received significant noise mitigation support. Once we know where the flight paths are [for the new airport], I expect houses there to receive a similar support package,” he said.
In 2018, the federal government set aside $75 million to reduce the impact of aircraft noise and potentially compensate nearby residents badly affected.
The new 3.7 kilometre runway will be long enough to handle aircraft as large as an A380 superjumbo.
Federal Labor MP Susan Templeman, whose electorate of Macquarie in far western Sydney will be among the worst affected by aircraft noise, said the interactive tool would allow people to clearly see how their home, school or work was likely to be affected by the flight paths.
“I remain extremely concerned about the aircraft noise the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury will experience,” she said.
The Sydney basin already has the busiest airspace in the country. In 2019 – before the pandemic – there were more than 710,000 annual air traffic movements in the basin.
The new airport, which is about 45 kilometres from Sydney’s CBD, will initially have capacity for about 10 million passengers a year, which equates to about 63,000 plane movements annually and makes it a similar size to Adelaide airport. Passenger aircraft as large as A380 superjumbos and cargo planes such as Boeing 747-400 freighters will be able to land at the new airport.
Once the airport opens in late 2026, planes will take off or land in a north-easterly or south-westerly direction, depending on the prevailing winds.
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue chairman Christopher Brown said the noise impact on residents from flights would be minimal and the social and economic opportunities from the new airport would be transformational.
“People in Blacktown worrying about noise from Badgerys Creek is like people in Manly putting their fingers in their ears as planes take off at Mascot,” said Brown, who was a member of a joint federal and state commission that nominated the Badgerys Creek site for the airport.
Construction of the airport near the foot of the Blue Mountains has reached its peak workforce of about 3500 people. The next milestone will be the completion of the airport terminal’s roof within the next two months.
A spokeswoman for federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said she expected the online tool showing the preliminary flight paths and aircraft noise impacts to be released next month.
“The government is committed to balancing the needs of the community, environment, industry and users of the broader greater Sydney airspace, while maintaining safety as the priority, in the design of the flight paths,” she said.
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport said it was developing a noise insulation and property acquisition policy relating to aircraft noise for buildings near the airport, which would be released as part of the draft environmental assessment.
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