Sunshine Coast Airport Airspace Changes Runway 13/31

In May 2019, the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman (ANO) commenced an investigation into flight path changes at Sunshine Coast.

The ANO provided Airservices with the report on 30 April 2020, and Airservices has accepted the two recommendations.

The ANO released the report, and Airservices response, on the ANO website on 30 June 2020.

The Investigation into complaints about the introduction of new flight paths in Sunshine Coast (April 2020) and Airservices' response can be accessed here (external site).

Airservices thanks the ANO for providing this report and its recommendations.

Airservices has received the ANO report into the Multiple Complaints investigation for Sunshine Coast.

In accordance with the ANO Charter, the Airservices Board will consider this report at its next scheduled meeting.

The ANO will release the report in the next two to three weeks.

We will also provide a link to the report here.

The Sunshine Coast Council has advised that the Sunshine Coast Airport’s new runway (RWY 13/31), planned to commence operations on 21 May 2020, will now be operational on 14 June 2020, subject to weather and COVID-19 not disrupting the program.

Council has advised that any such disruptions to the program may mean the date of 14 June 2020 will not be able to be met and programming will have to be reviewed.

The existing runway (RWY 18/36) will remain active and in use until the new runway is operational. Aircraft, including medical and emergency, charter flights and general aviation, will continue to use the current flight paths to the existing runway until the new runway is open.

You can read more about the runway update on the Sunshine Coast Council News Centre website (external site).

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) will be checking the approach and departure procedures for the new runway on Tuesday 17 March. This is expected to occur in the morning.

Local residents may observe a twin-engine aircraft flying a low and uncommon flight pattern up to 35 kilometres from the airport. Further information on this can be found on the CASA website.

On 30 July 2019 Airservices submitted an Airspace Change Proposal (ACP) to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) for consideration.

On 9 October 2019 CASA OAR approved the changes to airspace volumes to support operations to Sunshine Coast Airport’s new runway 13/31.

These changes will ensure the required flight paths and airspace are ready to support operations when the runway opens.

Yandina Quarry Operations

We are aware that some community members expressed concern regarding the potential aviation safety risk associated with operations at Yandina Quarry.

CASA OAR advised Airservices that they received an application for a Danger Area due to blasting at the Yandina Quarry on 26 August 2014.

They reviewed the application and identified that the height of the fly rock does not exceed ground level during regular blasting activities, therefore it does not pose a hazard to aviation.

CASA OAR determined the activities do not warrant the establishment of a Danger Area and did not impose conditions on either the air traffic management at Sunshine Coast Airport.

Airservices proposed final design for airspace and flight path changes at the Sunshine Coast was shaped by community feedback, and this design has been assessed for environmental impacts in Airservices Targeted Environmental Impact Assessment Version 2 (TEIA V2). The findings of TEIA V2 remain consistent with the findings of the approved EIS.

The TEIA V2 can be accessed under the Resources section. Please note due to the large file size we have split the TEIA V2 into several smaller documents for ease of downloading.

• As some aircraft can still be only at 16 feet at the departure end of a runway, and a turn left at that stage would not provide minimum obstacle clearance and would be unsafe; and
  
• if an aircraft was at 500 feet and still above the runway, a turn left would expose a large area of residential communities to direct overflight.
  

Airservices has submitted the Airspace Change Proposal (ACP) to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) Office of Airspace Regulation (OAR) to support the Sunshine Coast’s Airport's new runway.

Proposed changes to the Australian airspace architecture are managed through the CASA airspace change process, and are legislated under the Airspace Regulations 2007.

CASA will review the Sunshine Coast ACP to ensure it includes airspace that is needed to contain flight paths in controlled airspace, that it meets International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices, and incorporates international best practice that benefit the Australian Airspace System, wherever practicable.

When assessing the ACP, CASA will use the following criteria:

• Safety
• Protection of the environment
• Efficient use of airspace
• Equitable access
• National security
• Current and future needs of the Australian aviation industry
• Advances in technology

(Source: https://www.casa.gov.au/sites/default/files/arasmm.pdf)

Airservices expects a decision from CASA regarding the submission later in 2019 and we will notify the community once we are advised.

We would like to thank the Sunshine Coast community for submitting queries on the Sunshine Coast Airspace and Flight Path Changes and Consideration and Feedback Report.

During the 10 day query period, we received a total of 2,400 visits to our Engage Airservices engagement platform. We also had 119 queries and complaints submitted and our documents were downloaded 1,670 times.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their queries about the Sunshine Coast Proposed Final Design and Consideration of Feedback report.

The query period has now closed.

You can continue to access information about the final design through our Community Specific Fact Sheets and Runway Operation Infographic Posters under the resources tab and photo gallery.

We have received a number of queries regarding flight paths, curfew and consultation, from communities south of the airport including Buddina and Point Cartwright.

Consultation on the proposed flight path designs concluded on 30 April 2019. Community feedback was analysed and alternative submissions considered. The Proposed Final Design and Consideration of Feedback report describes this process and the outcomes.

We have recently received a number of requests from the community asking for the flight paths to be altered and for Airservices to relocate the tracking waypoints to the south east, known as ITIDE and MOOLO further over water to the north.

As consultation has concluded these suggestions will not be analysed at this time.

As part of our process, we may include them in the register of alternatives, if they meet minimum safety and operational feasibility requirements, will investigate them for possible future noise improvement outcomes.

Flight Paths

The communities of Buddina, including Point Cartwright, will no longer be directly overflown by jet operations when the new runway (Runway 13/31) operations commence.

Instead the flight paths will take aircraft over the water for both departures and arrivals – with the arrival flight path now approximately 2 km to the east of the coastline.

However these communities will continue to experience some aircraft operations, including noticing aircraft off the coast and experiencing some aircraft noise events, (between 5-10 noise events per day) at or below 60 decibels (N60). This will vary due to the runway operation used on the particular day and is slightly different across summer and winter.

Some community members will experience the effect of aircraft operations associated with departures off Runway 13 (approximately 77% of the time, due to prevailing winds), and arrivals to Runway 31 (approximately 23% of the time due to prevailing winds).

A graphic representation of this information can be found in Runway 13 Departures - Inner South Communities

A graphic representation of this information can be found in Runway 31 Arrivals - Inner South Communities