Almost 500,000 Brisbane residents would have a break from aircraft noise under proposed changes aimed at providing relief for "despairing" residents.
Six years after the city's second $1.1 billion runway opened, the federal government's air traffic oversight body is seeking community feedback on five options to reduce everyday impacts on residents.
In the month after the new runway opened in 2020, the number of complaints Airservices Australia received about Brisbane Airport jumped from 15 to 110.
In the years since, residents have demanded change while authorities have rolled out measures to ease the impact on residents as the airport continues to operate at its increased capacity.
The Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance has labelled the five options released this week as a "massive fail", but Airservices Australia says they are "really good" and offer residents a chance for respite.
But is it as simple as a redesign of the flight paths over Brisbane? In short, no.
How we got here
The five options released for public consultation this week are part of the final package of Airservices Australia's noise action plan for Brisbane.
In its report, air traffic management consultancy Trax International identified seven of the 17 concepts it investigated for further consideration, but two were deemed unsuitable by Airservices Australia.
It is the latest in a series of reports and reviews completed and options put forward in the six years since the second runway opened.
Also, back in 2021, the national Aircraft Noise Ombudsman found Airservices Australia "failed to engage effectively with the communities potentially affected by the new flight paths", which was "contrary to best practice for community engagement".
The measures introduced since 2020 include increasing the use of over-water operations, a night restriction on the western runway over land, non-jet early turns before 6am and intersection departure restrictions.
The report notes the measures "largely redistribute rather than remove noise" and depend on wind, traffic and the availability of the shared eastern airspace.
"Targeted refinements" have been made to arrival and departure flight paths within the constraints of the existing design in a bid to reduce the frequency and concentration of flights over the most affected communities.
That fine-tuning has been applied to the redistribution of flight paths where feasible as well.
As part of the noise action plan, Airservices Australia announced in July 140,000 residents will notice less planes flying overhead.
Matthew Loveday, from the Brisbane Flight Path Community Alliance, which he says is made up of 5,000 residents from across the city, wants to see a "meaningful action plan".
"People are despairing, that's what we hear," he says.
Flying higher, respite on offer
Residents would have periods of respite under two of the five options open for community feedback, with a schedule to show the areas and conditions in which they would apply.
Under both options, only one southern runway end would be used outside of peak periods to provide respite in northerly wind conditions.
These conditions occur around 37 per cent of the year, which works out to be around 100 weekdays per year.
Donna Marshall from Airservices Australia says the options would see residents, aligned with either runway, get respite from arrivals in between peak traffic periods on an alternating basis.
The report states that any planned relief does not guarantee an area would be free from all aircraft noise or overflight.
The other three options feedback is being sought on would see planes fly at higher altitudes, which would therefore reduce the level of noise. This would mean the location of the flight paths would not need to be changed.
For two options, this would apply between 10pm and 6am, due to height restrictions during the day, while for the other option it would be during the day and night operations.
Airservices Australia says the proposed options would deliver periods of respite from aircraft noise to 482,000 residents. Meanwhile, 139,000 would have aircraft noise reduced through improved aircraft arrival profiles that reduce the need for level flight
"What they found is by making some of these changes to altitudes and also offering these respite modes, where we switch from one runway to the other, that's the best opportunity for us to provide some meaningful relief to Brisbane communities," Ms Marshall says.
Mr Loveday says the proposal to fly at higher altitudes was positive but it was "not enough", with a solution to manage departures needed and further consideration of new routes.
He says residents wanted Airservices Australia to deliver the changes that were flagged as possible in Trax's 2022 report, with concerns authorities are "not willing to do what is required".
'Little empty airspace' around Brisbane
Trax also found there is "little empty airspace" into which Brisbane's traffic could be moved.
It concluded a complete redesign of the region's airspace would "largely move the constraints around rather than remove them".
This is because the surrounding Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast airports, the defence force and recreational users would still need access.
Seven options were considered in its review of operations surrounding Brisbane to enhance operations across the south-east, however, Trax determined none of them to be viable.
"It is a very, very busy piece of airspace and so Trax found there is not an opportunity to do a wholesale redesign of the flight paths to make a major noise improvement," Ms Marshall said.
What's next?
The community can provide feedback on the five options being considered by Airservices Australia until Sunday, December 13.
It says feedback will be considered "alongside technical, safety, operational and environmental assessments" in determining the next steps.
