Noise Action Plan for Brisbane

Program update

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

Over the year to date we have:

• engaged on preferred options for Package 3, along with one new option*
• continued to progress Package 4 actions*
• reviewed feedback on the Phase 2 Options Assessment Report
• completed assessment of the non-jet departure trial
• completed initial options assessment of procedural departure paths for Archerfield Airport
• further developed reporting for use of SODPROPS mode.

* This work is being undertaken with the support of our consultants, Trax International, who are specialists in flight path and airspace design.

Achievements of the program to date

Since commencing delivery of the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane in January 2023, we have:

^ Increased the use of Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations (SODPROPS) through the introduction of a SODPROPS Operating Plan and changes to flight paths implemented in November 2024.

The following comparison considers two months before and after the changes, with similar availability of suitable weather conditions. The changes we have made have clearly resulted in more flights being managed in this mode when suitable conditions are present.

^ Increased the altitude of overwater departures over the Redlands area as part of the redesign of SODPROPS and standard over water departure flight paths implemented in November 2024.

The following comparison of altitudes considers standard operating mode departures and SODPROPS mode departures. Planes are higher over communities, reducing noise impacts.

˅ Reduced overflight of communities by night-time and early morning (10pm to 6am) non-jet aircraft departures as part of a trial implemented in December 2023 which turned planes early to have them turn left and climb over water before turning in their direction of travel.

The following comparison of operations across pre-trial and trial periods considers the number of non-jet movements over communities during these hours, with the example of Northgate which is frequently subject to these flights.

> Shifted the overwater departure path to the north-west (waypoint WACKO) from the new (western) runway to the legacy (eastern) runway, turning over water to gain altitude before crossing airport land and then tracking over communities at a higher altitude, implemented in December 2023.

The following comparison considers the average altitude of planes where they first cross communities, now following a similar path as pre-new runway but at a higher altitude.

+ Introduced new segregated operating modes (continency modes for reduced capacity or single runway operations), implemented in February 2024.

Prior to this change, the two existing segregated modes placed all overland operations over new runway communities. With the additional modes, these operations can now be shared between both new (western) and legacy (eastern) runway communities.

What’s next

Thank you to everyone who submitted feedback on our most recent Package 3 proposals; we appreciate your valuable time and effort in contributing to our decision-making. We continue to work with Trax International to carefully review and analyse all community input and have commenced our formal assessment of the preferred options. Assessment considers essential safety and operational standards, and environmental and community impacts, as per the Fight Path Design Principles, along with feedback received. You can download the Flight Path Design Principles here: Flight Path Design Principles (1.2MB PDF)

If the decision is made to implement a preferred option, flight paths may undergo a final design refinement to ensure they deliver the best possible performance, in line with assessment outcomes. Airservices will communicate the outcomes, including reasons for decisions and, where flight paths are changing, expected timeframes for implementation. Timelines can vary depending on the complexity of the change.

A similar process is being followed for assessment of the new option for departures over land at night, noting this is an ‘initial option’ for a trial rather than a more developed preferred option.

We expect to share more details on Package 4 in our next update along with the Phase 5 Options Assessment Report.

Assessment reports now available

The following assessments have now been completed and are available for review.

Phase 4 Options Assessment Report: initial options for Package 2 actions focussing on departures from Archerfield Airport to facilitate the opportunity for greater use of SODPROPS.

Download report (771KB PDF) Provide feedback (by Monday 1 December 2025)

Non-jet Departure Trial Assessment Report: assessment of the trial of an early left turn for all non-jet departures over land from the legacy runway between 10pm and 6am. The trial found the procedure provides a noise benefit and the procedure will remain in place.

Download report (1.51MB PDF) Provide feedback (by Monday 1 December 2025)

The Phase 2 Options Assessment Report has been revised in response to community feedback download report (1.8MB PDF).

Noise Abatement Procedure (NAP) Reporting

NAP reporting, including the monthly and daily use of SODPROPS is available at our Aircraft in Your Neighbourhood website (please be sure to select a Brisbane location, and access this report through the Noise Abatement Procedure Reporting button on the left-hand menu).

Airservices Australia is pleased to advise the feedback period has been extended to facilitate further community review of the proposals and informed feedback on the options. This extension is provided in response to requests from residents for additional time to review material such as the Preliminary Environmental Impact Assessments, and to consider detailed replies from our team in response to email inquiries seeking specific information.

If you haven’t yet shared your views, we encourage you to do so during the extended period. And if you have already made a submission, you’re welcome to contact us with supplementary feedback if you wish.

Thank you for your continued engagement.

Quick links

Survey (now closing midnight, Sunday 24 August)

Frequently asked questions

Interactive maps (link to Brisbane Baseline Model)

On-demand webinar (link to video on YouTube)

How Brisbane airspace operates (link to video on YouTube)

Information sheets: Please browse the documents panel on the right of the main project page to download PDFs.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in the current round of community engagement. We’ve already received a significant amount of useful feedback and would like to now share additional information and clarifications in response to recent questions we’ve received. Please use the links below to download the relevant documents or browse the documents panel on the right of the main project page.

Arrivals over land, day and night (PDF 946KB) Relating to current preferred options 1.2 Arrivals over land from the north and west and 3.1 Arrivals over land for independent parallel runway operations, this document shows current and proposed flight paths for daytime and night-time arrivals. It provides more detail on how the arrivals to the long approach would connect to the legacy runway at night, including flight numbers for night-time only.

Flight path usage statistics (PDF 376KB) Prepared in response to a request from the Brisbane Airport Community Airspace Advisory Board (AAB), this document shows the average number of daytime weekday flights on each over land flight path. This is based on 2024 data.

Heat maps (PDF 546KB) These have been produced by Trax International based on actual track data for 2019 and 2024. The heat map for Package 3 shows how the 2024 data would look if all preferred options from Package 3 were implemented.

Departures over land: Relating to preferred options 1.1 Departures over land to the north and west and 2.1 Departures over land to the south and east, this clarification is particularly relevant for those communities overflown by departures from the new runway. Moving the eastbound flights from the current legacy runway path would reduce the number of flights over communities subject to departures from this runway, but would add those flights to new runway communities. This change is not proposed to add flights to new runway communities, though we note this is a consequence, but to facilitate proposed changes to over water arrivals from the south and east which will support greater use of SODPROPS when conditions permit. By realigning the arrival paths for standard operations to match the SODPROPS arrival paths, we can transition into the mode faster and thus increase its use.

Interactive mapping: Quick link to the Brisbane baseline model with interactive maps for Package 3 change proposals so you can compare them with the current flight paths. Click on the blue box labelled 'Change proposals' to see current options including noise contours.

Noise sharing: We added a new FAQ with a response to the question ‘What is noise sharing?’

Preliminary Environmental impact assessments

Preliminary Environmental impact assessments (PEIAs) are now available for Package 3 preferred options.

Unlike previously released environmental assessments, these have been conducted to support assessment of options that have not yet been designed in detail. These preliminary assessments will be reviewed and updated when detailed flight path designs have been decided upon. There are four PEIAs for Package 3:

• Departures over land from both runways (PDF 2MB) relating to preferred options 1.1 Departures over land to the north and west and 2.1 Departures over land to the south and east
• Arrivals over land to both runways (PDF 2.23MB) relating to preferred options 1.2 Arrivals over land from the north and west and 3.1 Arrivals over land for independent parallel runway operations
• Arrivals over water to both runways (PDF 1.69MB) relating to preferred options 2.2 Arrivals over water from the south and east and 3.2 Arrivals over water from the north and west
• Turboprop departures over water to the north (PDF 1.61MB) relating to preferred option 3.2 Arrivals over water from the north and west.

Please note, these are technical documents that record internal processes conducted to support development and assessment of proposed flight path changes. There is no EIA for option 4. Departures over land at night as it is not a preferred option.

Share your feedback with us: survey open until 17 August

We are pleased to advise that we have confirmed one final venue for community engagement meetings to discuss Package 3 options, and made more appointments available at two other venues.

Please book your timeslot and location through the Humanitix booking platform (external link). For more information on the appointments, please see our recent post below.

Also now available

On-demand webinar – John from Trax International presents this video guide to the Package 3 options. View online here.

New video information – Watch an overview of Package 3, more detailed videos of each of the preferred options; plus, learn more about Airservices Australia, how we manage Australia’s airspace, and how Brisbane airspace operates. Find the full playlist here.

Quick links

Frequently asked questions

Package 3 fact sheets

Book a meeting with us (19 – 31 July)

Complete the survey (open to 17 August)

We are pleased to provide the preferred options, along with one new night-time option, for Package 3 of the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane, which focus on reducing the frequency and concentration of operations over some of the city’s most overflown suburbs.

You can download an overview of all of the options here.

Download information sheets for each option from the documents panel to the right or via the links below:

• Preferred options to the north and west:
  • Departures over land to the north and west
  • Arrivals over land from the north and west
• Preferred options to the south and east:
  • Departures over land to the south and east
  • Arrivals over water from the south and east
• Preferred options to support independent parallel runway operations:
  • Arrivals over land
  • Arrivals over water from the north and west
• New night-time departures over land from the new runway

Other useful information:

The Brisbane Baseline Model which shows the 2019 pre new runway flight paths and the current flight paths, as well as usage, altitude and modelled noise data for each of the flight paths, has been updated with these options so you can compare them to the current operations. We have produced videos explaining the options which you can also view from the baseline model. This tool is best used on a larger laptop or desktop computer rather than a mobile device.

Frequently Asked Questions can be viewed using the tool on the right-hand side of this page (if using a mobile device, please scroll down to FAQs) We will update these as we receive further questions.

A comparison of the concepts engaged on in late 2024 and the preferred options is being prepared to identify the concepts that were progressed and those that were not. This will be available for public review this week. Environmental impact assessments for the preferred options are being prepared and will be released for public review next week.

Have your say

Feedback on these options is open from Saturday 19 July until midnight on 17 August 2025.

All feedback received will be considered in determining which of the options progress and which do not. You can have your say by:

• Completing the survey on any or all options here
• Emailing communityengagement@airservicesaustralia.com
• Writing to Locked Bag 747, Eagle Farm Q 4009

Please note, the Noise Complaint and Information Service (NCIS) is available to respond to complaints and provide information on current operations, but is unable to accept feedback on these options.

We are pleased to announce dates and locations for next phase of engagement for the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane. Detailed information on proposals including maps, videos and information sheets will be released next week. Feedback will be open 19 July to 17 August 2025.

Please find below:

• format of community meetings
• locations and dates
• quick Q&A on meetings for this phase
• more about this phase of engagement.

Format of community meetings

• 20-minute individual appointments with flight path designers
• discuss the options of most interest to you and ask your specific questions
• provide detailed feedback to be directly recorded by our engagement team
• can’t attend in person? We are reserving some appointments at each of these sessions for individual online meetings

Please book your timeslot and location through the Humanitix booking platform. If you’re having problems with booking online, please email us at communityengagement@airservicesaustralia.com

Locations and dates

FAQs for Phase 6 meetings

• How many people can come to my appointment?
  • You can bring up to three other people with you on your ‘ticket’.
• What if I need to change or cancel my booking?
  • You can do this online the same way that you made the booking or email us communityengagement@airservicesaustralia.com
• Do I have to go to the location nearest my home?
  • You can attend any session that is convenient to you, including online if you can’t make it in person.
• What if the meeting time I want is already booked out?
  • If your preferred time and date is booked out, please register for the waitlist for that day and we’ll let you know if a time becomes available (e.g. through a cancellation).
• Do I have to download an app to do an online meeting?
  • You can join the meeting through online using Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome without installing the Teams app. You will need internet access.
• What equipment do I need for an online meeting?
  • A reasonably sized screen will help you see the maps clearly (ie not a phone). It would also be helpful to have a camera and speakers or headset with microphone.
• Why aren’t you doing webinars this time round?
  • We will have a recorded webinar. This will be more convenient because you can watch it at a time and place that suits you, rewinding and skipping to focus on what is of most interest to you. This also enables us to hold more one-on-one sessions to respond to people’s specific needs and interests.

More about this phase of engagement

This phase of engagement is a key step in the flight path change process. In previous phases we have presented initial flight path concepts and options for feedback. We will now be engaging on the preferred flight paths options. These have been developed by specialist flight path and airspace design consultancy, Trax International, in response to community and industry input, and following detailed technical assessments.

In this phase of engagement, we will present specific options for departure and arrival flight paths to provide a holistic change proposal for operations across Greater Brisbane.

Airservices Australia is pleased to announce that community engagement on options to reduce the frequency and concentration of flights over communities will commence on 19 July 2025.

In 2024, we engaged the Brisbane community and the aviation industry on initial flight path concepts. Having considered the significant volume of feedback received and following further technical analysis, we’ve worked with our consultants, Trax International, to develop several preferred flight path options that we believe will reduce the impact of operations on some of Brisbane’s most affected communities.

Dates, venues and online booking details to meet with us in person at one of the many inner city and suburban locations will be released in approximately two weeks’ time.

Planning is continuing for engagement on the Package 3 designs being developed by Trax International, with Trax in the final stage of development. We will provide a further update on the engagement timing once this work is complete.

Over the last quarter of 2024 we:

• implemented changes to over-water departures
• reviewed feedback on our previous round of engagement*
• prepared preferred options for engagement early this year*
• completed assessment reports for Phase 3 and Phase 4 engagement
• evaluated the trial for non-jet departures over land.

* This work is undertaken with the support of our consultants Trax International. Package 4 actions have also been progressed in parallel to other work – due to scope and scale of these actions they will take longer to complete.

Noise Action Plan for Brisbane reports now available

The following documents can all be downloaded as PDFs from the links below or accessed via the document panel to the right-hand side of this page.

Phase 3 Options Assessment Report covers:

• Reduced concentration of daytime flight paths west of the airport
• Night-time arrivals (all locations).

This report is open for feedback until Sunday 23 February 2025.

The Phase 4 Preferred Options Assessment Report covers:

• Alternative over-water departure paths
• Additional segregated modes
• The Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations (SODPROPS) Plan.

This report is open for feedback until Sunday 23 February 2025.

Please note the initial options engaged on in Phase 4 – Standard instrument departures for Archerfield Airport – are being assessed separately.

The Phase 1 Options Assessment Report, which has been revised in response to community feedback.

Upcoming focus

Over the first quarter in 2025 we will:

• complete designs for preferred options for Package 3 and release these for community feedback
• release evaluation outcomes of the trial for non-jet departures over land
• complete assessment of proposed departures for Archerfield Airport
• continue to progress Package 4 actions.

2018 Environmental Impact Assessments

We have had requests from the community to share the Environmental Impact Assessments completed in 2018 as part of the final flight path design process for the new parallel runway that opened in 2020. Airservices Australia is releasing this documentation in the interest of transparency.

Please note, these are historical documents prepared for internal use in compliance with legislative requirements, rather than for public information. As such, they are quite lengthy and technical in many parts, and they may also contain redactions where identifying information was included.

These can be downloaded from the document panel to the right (or below, on a mobile device), noting some are large files.

Over-water departure paths weather update

The new over-water departure paths from the legacy runway were implemented as planned on 28 November 2024. Initial community feedback was positive with residents reporting improved noise outcomes. However, the weather for many days in December did not enable use of the new departure paths and largely restricted use of SODPROPS.

The impact of weather on air traffic can be hard to see from the ground. For example, in Brisbane in the first week of December last year, the weather appeared to be mostly fine. However, the weather system that had pushed through over the first weekend continued to affect operations early in the week as there were still storm cells evident and more were forecast. This necessitated multiple runway changes for individual aircraft and tactical intervention from Air Traffic Control (that is, the controllers had to direct each aircraft by compass headings, not by issuing the published flight paths). Pilots also requested alternative tracking to remain clear of poor weather.

It’s worth noting that the Bureau of Meteorology radar only shows rainfall, as does the rainfall layer on WebTrak. Pilots and our air traffic controllers look at other aspects of weather, for example, there may be windshear forecast, observed, and acted on. Because adverse weather can be a safety issue for aircraft, our controllers provide alternatives in poor weather conditions.

Keep up to date with SODPROPS usage by reviewing reports on Aircraft in Your Neighbourhood. These reports were developed in 2024 and are being continuously improved and updated. Be sure to select a Brisbane location to find information relevant to Brisbane Airport.

Several community members have recently asked about non-jet aircraft using the shorter, curved approaches (RNP-ARs) to the airport rather than the long, straight-in approach (ILS). First up, a reminder of how these different approaches work:

• an Instrument Landing System (ILS) approach can be conducted by all aircraft and is the most common arrival procedure at Brisbane Airport. The ILS flight path is effectively an extension of the runway centreline and requires a straight-in final approach
• a Required Navigation Performance – Authorisation Required (RNP-AR) approach allows a continuous curved path prior to a shorter final approach section aligned with the runway. Using an RNP-AR, aircraft can line up with the runway much closer to the airport.

RNP-AR flight paths are available for each runway at Brisbane Airport. They can be flown by any aircraft equipped with the required technology and where the airline/operator has been authorised by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to conduct RNP-AR operations.

More advanced aircraft, usually jets, are likely to be equipped to use an RNP-AR. Airlines may choose to fit the technology to other aircraft types.

QantasLink has equipped their Dash 8 (non-jet aircraft) to use RNP-AR approaches and has been authorised by CASA to do so. With this authorisation, QantasLink has started using the existing RNP-AR flight paths into Brisbane Airport. There were approximately 60 flights on these paths by QantasLink in October 2024 (including arrivals over Moreton Bay).

What does this have to do with the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane?

In August 2024, Airservices Australia consulted the community on the proposal that certified non-jets could use the RNP-AR approach when arriving via WOODY and MORBI waypoints. If progressed, that proposal would require design of new flight paths to connect into the RNP-AR approach and, as a result, is subject to community engagement. Appropriate use of current RNP-AR approaches from other waypoints is not subject to community engagement because changes to flight paths are not required.

Arrival paths to Brisbane Airport

Overland arrival paths to Brisbane Airport are used when the wind is from the north. You can see these on our interactive maps. Here are the shortcuts to the daytime flight paths and the night-time flight paths.