Bankstown arrivals

In November 2014 Airservices changed an existing flight path to Bankstown Airport. This followed a review of air traffic control procedures to ensure they were appropriate for modern navigation aids and to further enhance the safe operations of Sydney’s airspace.

The change sees aircraft flying an ‘instrument’ approach into Bankstown Airport using a modified flight path which is about 2.5 kilometres west of the previous flight path (see map).

An instrument approach relies on a pilot navigating to the runway using ground based navigation aids and ‘instruments’ within the aircraft cockpit.

This meant that the suburbs of Plumpton, Rooty Hill, Blacktown, Mount Druitt, Whalan, St Marys, Erskine and Minchinbury would see an increase in aircraft flying overhead at an altitude of around 3000ft (roughly 1km).

While residents of these suburbs may have noticed an increase in aircraft noise, even the noisiest aircraft will generate noise levels of just 60dB – roughly the same level of noise as a normal conversation.

Use of the new flight path was expected to be relatively low, with fewer than 10 flights on most days and rarely more than 20. The vast majority of these flights will be between 6am and 10pm.

A review of the change was undertaken and a report is available. The report notes that community feedback demonstrates there was no noticeable noise impact on the community as a result of these changes. Airservices therefore considers the changes to have been successfully implemented.