More nighttime and weekend flights over Moreton Bay to reduce noise

More aircraft using Brisbane Airport are now arriving and leaving simultaneously on flights over Moreton Bay to reduce noise in residential areas.

Brisbane Airport’s slow shift to a new operating model comes four years after noise complaints increased seven-fold after the new parallel runway opened.

Brisbane Airport’s new runway opened on July 12, 2020, triggering changes to the way aircraft noise complaints are handled.

Airservices Australia last week issued a notice to pilots advising that more flights would arrive and depart over Moreton Bay during the period from Saturday noon to Sunday at 4pm.

Another change, under the introduction of Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations, would allow for flights to land and depart over the bay at the same time for an extra hour each week night.

The shift to SODPROPS was one of 49 recommendations made by Trax International following a review of Brisbane Airport operations after thousands of noise complaints.

A Brisbane Noise Action Plan was developed after the review and two previous investigations by the independent Aircraft Noise Ombudsman and by Airservices Australia.

Airservices Australia flagged the latest change in May, and on Friday confirmed it had taken effect.

Real-time flight tracking can be viewed on its WebTrak flight viewer.

“This will now also result in communities close to Brisbane Airport benefiting from greater use of SODPROPS mode where aircraft fly over Moreton Bay when arriving or departing Brisbane Airport, rather than aircraft flying over the city,” a spokeswoman said.

Brisbane Airport Corporation welcomed the change, which follows a trial of new flight paths. It said that, since the new runway opened, 51 per cent of all flights were over Moreton Bay, with a larger proportion of nighttime flights also directed away from residential areas.

However, the Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance, an activist group led by QUT Professor Marcus Foth, maintained the “vast majority of flights” still went over land.

The Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance says their flight data shows both flights over land and over water has increased since 2022.Credit: Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance

“It is over people who get woken up and exposed to the aircraft noise pollution,” said Foth, a member of the Queensland Greens.

Foth said their analysis of data showed an overall increase in flights over land and flights over water. Despite claims of changes intended to reduce aircraft noise, he said “nothing has improved”.