Curtail the Brisbane curfew

A curfew until 6am would checkmate these flights, forcing costlier and earlier diversions. Presently, those in a good fuel situation can hold halfway between Sydney and Brisbane, just 25 minutes from an approach at either. A curfew would also prevent many late night diversions to and delayed departures for Brisbane, and destroy the freight network carriers radiating out primarily from two 3am 737 freighter arrivals at Brisbane.

Queensland has another unique problem. Like WA, jets are used on longer regional flights, but as the majority of Queensland’s population lives outside Brisbane there are a greater numbers of flights.

All direct regional flights to Proserpine and beyond are jets, while Rockhampton, Mackay, and possibly soon Gladstone get jets and turboprops.

Cyclones, fog and thunderstorms are coastal features, and monsoon weather north of Mackay can seriously delay flights, which can be overcome by operating through the night at Brisbane, which is also an out for delayed regional internationals.

Then there is the block of internationals departing Brisbane for Asian ports around midnight which offer fast connections to European ports with primetime arrival slots there. These would have to be rescheduled up to three hours earlier (as would their inbound legs) injecting a longer wait in the Asian hubs.

The history of Brisbane Airport and the new parallel runway (NPR) is not well known, but contains the roots of the curfew question. The ‘Airport 86’ plan proposed a single runway airport (now runway 01/19) oddly located along the eastern edge of a vast land area. The alignment was hotly contested by forecasters, controllers and pilots, due to prevailing winds which saw the US Air Force choose 04/22 for ‘old’ Brisbane. Runway 01/19 has built in crosswinds and can also feature mechanical turbulence from the larger hangars in the area.

The absence of a secondary runway was equally contested.

The old 14/32 runway often handled more traffic and serious doubts were raised about the capacity of the single runway proposed. But the 01/19 alignment conveniently pointed the runway away from influential Hamilton and Ascot – the reason for old Brisbane’s curfew which seriously affected operations along the whole east cost. New Brisbane was seen as a plan to build a curfew free airport and it got up. The complainants had won – they thought.

Later, a new 14/32 cross runway (to close once the NPR opens) was quietly introduced near the coast as Phase 2, which solved traffic problems. Then filling a big block of empty space inside the boundary (Phase 3), the parallel runway 01L/19R also appeared, its flightpath pointing straight at the prime noise sensitive areas. The reason for the size and shape of ‘Airport 86’ – some think the third layout attempt to appease politicians – and its carefully staged unveiling was finally clear.

Given the distance from Ascot and the rigid enforcement of night flightpaths, and the very low chance of night 19R takeoffs or 01L landings having to be used, there is little chance of significant night noise there from the NPR.

Since 1990, the final plan has been public along with proposed flightpaths. Air traffic control has done an outstanding job spreading noise via the wide variety of flightpaths.

There is no valid reason for a curfew but a high threat lurks.

Razor accurate RNP (required navigation performance) approaches and departures concentrate noise over very precise paths. Over the last 60 miles to join RNPs, equally accurate Next Gen idle thrust constant descent rate approaches are on the way – in effect elongated RNPs. Whereas many suburbs have worn noise, now individual streets will as tracks are concentrated.

RNP as is will be used to push a curfew or movement cap and require more and variable RNP joining options, perhaps ending in RNPs with two added outer legs.

With politicians who have no ATC or operational knowledge facing a hot election, what hope is there of avoiding a curfew at Brisbane?