2019-05-16 Ordinary Meeting Agenda

ORDINARY MEETING AGENDA                                                                 16 MAY 2019


Since that time, the following actions have been taken:
 The Chief Executive Officer has formally written to the Commonwealth Department of
    Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities seeking a statutory curfew to apply to the
    Sunshine Cast Airport in the future. This is the Department that has statutory authority for
    airports in Australia. The key issues raised included the need to protect residential amenity, the
    increased impact that flights could have during night time operations and the fact that such
    statutory curfews exist at Sydney, Adelaide, Gold Coast and Melbourne Essendon airport.
 As the matter of a statutory curfew is a Commonwealth Government decision, the Mayor has
    also written to the Federal Members of Parliament for Wide Bay (Llew O’Brien MP) and Fairfax
    (Ted O’Brien MP) in relation to this matter. The Mayor has also written to the relevant Federal
    Minister (Minister Michael McCormack MP) seeking his support on this matter. Both the Mayor
    and CEO have briefed the Member for Wide Bay extensively on this issue and he is providing
    excellent support for the position taken by the Noosa Council and the Noosa community on the
    flight path issue. The Mayor has also discussed this matter with Ted O’Brien MP, Federal
    Member for Fairfax as well as the State Member for Noosa, Sandy Bolton MLA.
 No formal response has yet been received from the Commonwealth in relation to the curfew
    issue but this may be related to the fact that the Commonwealth government is currently in
    “caretaker mode” due to the upcoming federal election.
 The CEO has written to the Sunshine Coast Council requesting them to conduct an independent
    EIS for Lake Weyba, plus Noosa National Park and the coastal dunes within the Castaways and
    Marcus Beach area. No formal response has been received to date and a follow up request is
    underway. Sunshine Coast Council have made press statements that reject the position put by
    Noosa Council.
 The CEO formally requested Airservices Australia to extend the time period for submissions for
    a period of one month (beyond 30 April) on the basis of the poor and well documented problems
    associated with the Airservices Australia consultation process. On Tuesday 30 April, Council
    received correspondence from Airservices Australia advising that they did not intend to extend
    the engagement period. That same day, the CEO again wrote to Airservices Australia seeking
    a review of that decision emphasising the importance of this issue to the Noosa community and
    the need to allow more time for the community to make informed submissions on this important
    issue. Airservices Australia has indicated that it does not intend to extend time further. Further
    consideration on this issue will be considered under the heading of “next steps” below.
 The CEO requested Airservices Australia to provide a detailed explanation as to why the
    intensity of flight numbers over the coastal flight path versus hinterland flight path has changed.
    Airservices Australia has provided their response on 3 May 2019 as follows:
    “With reference to aircraft operations on the approved flight paths from the EIS, Chapter D2
    section 2.9.1.3 describes the Secondary Approach and Departure Corridor as:
    This is a secondary corridor that has been established to provide an efficient second flight path
    for aircraft arriving from, and departing to southern destinations such as Sydney and Melbourne.
    This corridor provides a shorter flight path for arriving aircraft able to carry out some types of
    advanced GPS based instrument approach procedures which can accommodate turns, as well
    as providing a suitable flight path for aircraft making visual approaches.
    Aircraft arriving from the south to Runway 13 will use the secondary corridor to save the extra
    flying distance and time which would otherwise be required if they were to arrive via an outer
    joining route to the primary approach corridor in the north. In some instances ATC will also split
    air traffic between the primary and secondary corridors to avoid traffic conflicts.
    The increased adoption of the advanced GPS technology by airlines, now means that more
    aircraft are able to carry out these types of advanced GPS based instrument approach
    procedures on the efficient second flight path, saving them the extra flying distance and time.”
    No other information has been provided by Airservices Australia at this time in relation to this
    aspect.



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