Residents near Sydney’s new international airport have vented their anger over looming disruption from flight paths when planes start flying from it in two years, and a loophole that has left people living about a kilometre from the runway ineligible for noise insulation for their homes.
Mayors, residents and conservation groups have stepped up calls for Western Sydney Airport to have the same curfew as Sydney Airport between 11pm and 6am when it opens in late 2026.
Western Sydney Airport is due to open in late 2026 without a curfew.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Luddenham residents want noise mitigation assistance for the village, which they argue will miss out because ground noise at the airport is not a criterion for determining help. Comprising about 300 homes, the village will not be under a flight path but is within about a kilometre of the airport.
They also argue their village has been left in a state of limbo, resulting in people leaving, because of a lack of certainty about allowable land use for the area.
Appearing before a Senate committee hearing into aircraft noise on Friday, Luddenham Progress Association president Carolyn Wong said residents were leaving because of the uncertainty about what was permitted in the area.
“Our village is dissolving,” she said.
Luddenham Progress Association president Carolyn Wong.Credit: Wolter Peeters
Her group joined others in calling for a curfew on flights at the new airport between 11pm and 6am, a redesign of flight paths for the entire Sydney basin, as well as a ban on the use of reverse engine thrust from 10pm to 6am.
“To deliberately subject people of Luddenham and western Sydney to 24-hour noise pollution is not only discriminatory, it is negligent,” she said.
“There must be provisions for those tormented by aircraft noise, even though their homes are outside the noise contour, to have their homes noise insulated.”
The group’s treasurer Glen Marsden said the exclusion of the impact of ground noise from a draft assessment of preliminary flight paths for the airport had disadvantaged the residents of the village and their entitlement to insulation measures such as double glazing of windows.
“There is now no residents in the Luddenham village which would be entitled to noise mitigation assistance,” he said.
Western Sydney Airport’s terminal will handle both domestic and international aircraft.Credit: Wolter Peeters
The Blue Mountains Conservation Society also argued that the draft environmental assessment for the new flight paths was “fundamentally flawed”, and that authorities had failed to propose any plans to reduce the threats to the world heritage area.
Joanne Carroll, from Blue Mountains Residents, said the area had low ambient noise, especially at night, and residents were opposed to planes flying around the clock.
“It has to be asked why the residents of western Sydney and the Blue Mountains are to be treated as second-class citizens being denied equity with the residents who are affected by Kingsford Smith Airport,” she said.
Wilderness Australia projects officer Keith Muir said the group wanted to see flight-free zones for the Blue Mountains similar to those imposed in the US over the Grand Canyon National Park.
Maria Partinos, who represents residents west of Sydney Airport, said people in western Sydney “won’t know what has hit them” if a curfew and a long-term operating plan for the new airport were not established.
She is a member of the Sydney Airport Community Forum, which was set up in 1996 following widespread fury over aircraft noise from Kingsford Smith.
Partinos said the constant complaint of residents over the past 26 years was that they found it “very difficult” to effect change. “Even if they succeed, it can take years for changes to happen, particularly once flight paths are implemented,” she said.
Blue Mountains Council mayor Mark Greenhill said the stark change for his community from quiet nights to planes regularly flying at lower altitude 24 hours a day when the new airport opens was inequitable.“No other areas affected by Western Sydney Airport’s operations will experience such a dramatic change,” he said.
Wollondilly mayor Matt Gould said western Sydney communities would be subject to different aircraft standards compared to those in the inner-city and eastern suburbs due to the absence of a curfew for the new airport.
“This is nothing short of a double standard,” he said. “We need to have consistency between Kingsford Smith and Western Sydney International.”
Asked whether a curfew was still an option, Western Sydney Airport executive Alison Webster told the hearing that the business case and planning for the airport had been predicated on 24/7 operations.
The airport directed questions about noise insulation for homes to the federal Department of Infrastructure.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.