Darwin Traffic Management

Airservices and Defence changed five existing flight paths to Darwin Airport from 28 May 2015. This followed a review of the existing air traffic control procedures and environmental assessment which was last reviewed in 2005. The changes were due to a number of factors including, increased aircraft traffic, maximising airspace efficiency and change in aircraft mix.

Changes were relatively minor and included three departure flight paths and two approach flight paths within the Darwin CBD region. The changes are shown below.

Departure flight paths

Arrival flight paths

The changes were not likely to be noticeable to the community due to the flight path distance being well away from residential areas, along with the high altitude of aircraft in both the previous and new tracks. Any changes in noise level would not be noticeable and the changes would not expose any new areas to aircraft noise.

Airservices applied the Department of the Environment Protected Matters Search Tool to identify threatened habitats and ecosystems, threatened and vulnerable flora and fauna species, heritage matters, or other matters of environmental significance that may be impacted by aircraft noise as a direct result of implementing the proposed flight path realignment.

As a result of the analysis, there was not expected to be a significant environmental impact from the proposed changes. An Environmental Assessment has been undertaken and is available.