#30: Why 50% over the Bay is a Fail

60 Reasons to Protest: Reason #30 – Why 50% over the Bay is a Fail

Tonight’s protest reason is the 30th, so we are at the half way mark, and the protest is in a month’s time! Have you registered yet? Please do so now so we can gauge numbers.

We are all too familiar with the slogan “We’ll fly over the bay.” These are Brisbane Airport’s words – see the famous image Brisbane Airport Corporation and Airservices Australia have been using to dupe and mislead communities in believing the new runway will direct flights away from residential areas and over water. (BFPCA has changed and adopted the preferred term “over water” to acknowledge that flight paths leaving towards Moreton Bay often curve back around immediately and wake up and annoy bayside communities. We want this changed, too!)

Protest reason #60 already looked at how Airservices first amended and then finally entirely removed any mention of over water operations (aka SODPROPS – Simultaneous Opposite Direction Parallel Runway Operations) from day-time noise abatement procedures at Brisbane Airport without telling the community.

But there is more to get angry about!

Here is BAC Operations Manager Cam Spencer quoted in the Courier Mail on 18 Sep 1999:

Mr Spencer said the corporation was aiming for 90 percent [SODPROPS over the bay operations] and there might be “days in a row” when it might not be achievable. – “It might be we can get 95 percent for nine months of the year and only 80 percent for the other three months,” he said.

So 80% was seen as the lower bar, and they’d aspire towards 90 or even 95% of the time that SODPROPS are in use.

The 2006 MDP/EIS promised Brisbane residents not only to prioritise over water operations, it also said:

1. New flight paths or existing flight path changes to occur over water where possible, especially where aircraft are below 5,000 ft.
2. Where it is not possible for new flight paths to be over water, flight paths to be concentrated over uninhabited areas where possible.
3. If flight paths over residential areas are necessary, then residential areas overflown by aircraft to be minimised to the extent practicable.
4. Residential areas overflown by departing aircraft should not to the extent practicable also be overflown by arriving aircraft.

However, Airservices has failed on all four accounts: Flight paths have been concentrated over not just inhabited but in fact some of Australia’s most densely populated residential areas. And, the same Brisbane residential areas overflown by departing aircraft on flight path I are also overflown by arriving aircraft on flight paths G, H1, and H2. 

Not only have Airservices broken all the original commitments and promises made to the community in 2006, they have also entirely removed SODPROPS from the “Preferred Runway Operations Top Priority” spot for daytime operations between 6am and 10pm in its final release of the Brisbane Airport noise abatement procedures released 21 May 2020 and kept these changes secret and under wraps. The community was NOT told about this.

What about directing flights over water 80-95% of the time?

The graph below shows that we have now returned to pre-COVID flight numbers. The percentage of flights over water (24 hours) has returned to less than 50%. The New Parallel Runway is having ZERO positive impact on the number of flights being routed over water over a 24 hour period despite BAC CEO making that promise on national TV prior to the launch.

The other graph below shows that the number of SODPROPS flights have reduced as total flight numbers have increased. Even during the night, more than a third of flights continue to fly over Brisbane residential homes and waking up children and families between 10pm and 6am.

The 2007 Ministerial Approval of BAC’s New Parallel Runway MDP/EIS entails specific conditions including “measures that will ensure the community is kept informed of … changes to any air traffic control departure and arrival procedures.”

Considering these significant and major changes to the air traffic control departure and arrival procedures, did the Department apply any checks or controls to ensure the community is kept informed of these changes by Airservices and BAC? Simply speaking: Did you know this is what they were doing?

You tell us.

To add insult to injury, BAC continue to produce more and more PR spin, saying they are:

“happy to report that we are indeed getting most aircraft operations over the bay. We are seeing an average of 50% of flights over the bay in the hours between 6am and 10pm, and 65% over the bay from 10pm to 6am.”

Let’s debunk this myth: 50% over the bay means 50% over the city during the day. 65% at night means 35% over the city. AND consider that the flight paths leaving towards Moreton Bay then often curve around immediately and wake up and annoy bayside communities.

Watch BFPCA’s explainer video – Why 50% Over the Bay is a FAIL