Update 5

Noise Action Plan for Brisbane – Quarterly Update

Welcome to the second quarterly update on the progress of the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane.

Over this last quarter we engaged with communities on options to reduce the impact of:

• Legacy runway over-water operations to the south – day and night
• New runway over-water operations to the west
• Legacy runway over land operations to the north between 10pm and 6am
• Early morning turboprop operations
• Early jet turn from the legacy runway.

We also shared our draft Communications Approach, proposed baseline model content and structure and information on the 2022 noise improvement trials to support upcoming assessment.

We would like to thank everyone who participated. We recorded 877 (updated following final data review of all locations) attendees at the 13 community drop-in sessions and have received 1656 submissions which we are now reviewing.

Status update

We have continued to focus on delivering our 2023 priority actions. Our progress against each priority action is reported below:

We are continuing to progress a number of other actions relating to recommendation 1.1 of the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane, including:

• Development of an options assessment framework using independent third party expertise
• Review of current noise tool capability (Aircraft In Your Neighbourhood, WebTrak) and options to improve the quality of information provided
• Procurement of an qualified third party to support an independent assurance process of our design activity
• Procurement of appropriately skilled and qualified consultants to support flight path and airspace design.

Upcoming Engagement

After the June/July school holidays, we will present the second round of design options we have developed in response to Package 2 - Maximise flights over the water and Package 3 - Reduce the frequency and concentration of flights over communities.

This will focus primarily on options to increase operations over water, notably Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations (SODPROPS).

We will also share at this time:

• Outcomes of phase one engagement – including next steps and implementation timeframes
• Final Communications Approach – including how feedback has shaped this approach
• Options to reduce the impact of legacy runway over land operations to the north between 10pm and 6am – based on the feedback we received during round one discussions
• Increased reporting on operations – initial reporting of SODPROPS, Noise Abatement Procedures and other operations – based on feedback we received during round one discussions and during the Post Implementation Review.

We will release information on the planned timing of phase two engagement four weeks ahead of face-to-face sessions commencing, with the specific dates and locations for these sessions published a minimum of two weeks ahead.

We propose to alert communities to these activities through Engage Airservices, newspaper advertising, media articles, local Facebook groups, and information provided via community representative groups and elected representatives. We will also consider feedback received on the Communications Approach in preparing for this second phase of engagement. You can see how we promoted phase one engagement here.

Additional information

During Post Implementation Review (PIR) engagement sessions, we referenced an international study relating to the contribution of aircraft operations on local air quality, in response to concerns raised about impacts on rainwater tanks. We committed to share the study details but did not do so at the time. We apologise for this. We were reminded of this committed action during the recent drop-in sessions and the information referenced can be found in this report – White paper on air quality, Aviation impacts on air quality: State of the science.

We note the study referenced dates back to 1992. A more contemporary study of aircraft emissions can be found in the - Impacts of Aviation NOx Emissions on Air Quality, Health, and Climate.