November flight path changes

Consistent with the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane and the Ministerial Direction, on 28 November 2024, SODPROPS will become the priority mode of operation at Brisbane Airport whenever suitable conditions allow.

To enable an increase in SODPROPS usage, we are making changes to existing flight paths.

These changes mean that departure flight paths used during SODPROPS will remain over water for longer and will be higher before aircraft cross the coastline, resulting in lower noise levels for communities. The changes have been subject to two rounds of community engagement, in April 2023 and May 2024.

This will mean for every flight using this procedure, there will be a reduction of the total population overflown by between 300,000 to 500,000 people compared to standard parallel runway operations.

As a result of these changes, we anticipate SODPROPS being used more often, especially during weekend daytime hours, and also from around 9pm in the evening on weekdays. This will support an increase in SODPROPS use from the current 2% of all operations to around 5% in 2025.  

A new waypoint, or navigation marker, has also been added to the east of North Stradbroke Island to increase the distance that aircraft pass by Point Lookout, in response to community feedback on preferred options.

These changes to departure flight paths over water will apply to departures in all modes of operation at all times of day, whenever jet aircraft are taking off over water (not just in SODPROPS). There will be no change to departures that take off over land.

To facilitate the increased use of this mode, we will also be making a minor adjustment to the existing arrival path that crosses over North Stradbroke Island during SODPROPS. This involves lowering the paths from around 13,000 feet to around 11,000 feet, so they remain separated from daytime arrivals to Gold Coast Airport. We do not expect this change to be noticeable to communities. As a precaution, we will be installing a noise monitor on North Stradbroke Island at the beginning of November to collect this data. Noise monitoring information will be made available on WebTrak.

This change to arrival flight paths over North Stradbroke Island will apply only to aircraft arriving during SODPROPS, not in any other mode of operation.

It is important to note that SODPROPS is a low-capacity mode that requires specific weather conditions to support its use, which means it cannot operate all hours of every day.

Visit the interactive map to compare current, new and priority options as well as altitudes at key points on these departure paths.