BFPCA is extremely disappointed by Minister King’s decision to approve the Brisbane Airport Master Plan.
More than 500 Brisbane residents individually wrote to the Minister asking her to refuse the Master Plan because it locks in thousands of flights a day over people and entrenches the aircraft noise impacts that communities have been experiencing since 2020. The Minister has ignored those concerns and approved the Plan regardless.
What is particularly concerning is that the Minister’s own media release acknowledges that the current Aircraft Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF) in the Master Plan does not account for potential future flight path changes being considered under the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane. That’s precisely the purpose of a Master Plan: reliable future forecasts. BAC failed on this account, yet the Minister approved the Master Plan despite knowing the data cannot be relied upon.
In other words, the Minister has approved a 20-year Master Plan while simultaneously acknowledging that the airport’s future noise impacts may change as a result of decisions that have not yet been made and are not reflected in the approved Plan.
Over the past four months BFPCA wrote twice to the Minister seeking clarification on a series of procedural questions concerning environmental assessment, Airservices Australia’s own assessment processes, the relationship to the 2007 environmental approvals, and how future flight path changes would be reflected in the noise forecasts. Those questions were never substantively answered before approval was granted.
The approval confirms what Brisbane communities have increasingly concluded: the current regulatory system prioritises airport growth and aviation industry interests, while communities are expected to simply accept the resulting aircraft noise impacts.
BFPCA will continue advocating for genuine noise reduction, greater use of over-water operations, a Brisbane Airport curfew, movement caps, stronger independent oversight, and implementation of the recommendations of the Senate Inquiry into aircraft noise.
Our correspondence with the Minister
BFPCA did not wait until the 2026 Master Plan was approved to raise these concerns.
On 23 February 2026, while the Draft Master Plan was still before Minister Catherine King, BFPCA wrote directly to the Minister seeking clarification on five key procedural issues. These included the application of Airservices Australia’s environmental assessment processes, the operational baseline used for noise assessment, potential EPBC Act considerations, whether a gap analysis had been undertaken against the 2007 EIS, and whether the ANEF remained fit for purpose given the pending redesign of Brisbane’s airspace.
The Minister’s office responded on 24 March 2026. The response confirmed two important facts: supplementary N-metric noise contours in the Master Plan were not reviewed by Airservices as part of its ANEF endorsement, and the ANEF did not account for potential future flight path changes under the Noise Action Plan for Brisbane. However, it did not directly answer several of BFPCA’s procedural questions.
BFPCA therefore wrote again on 10 April 2026, restating five specific questions and asking what documentation the Department had obtained to satisfy itself that the relevant environmental assessment and governance processes had been applied.
The Department eventually responded on the Minister’s behalf on 29 May 2026. It confirmed that no gap analysis against the 2007 EIS had been undertaken under Airservices’ environmental assessment standard. It also confirmed again that the ANEF excluded potential future flight path changes and stated that those changes would inform a future ANEF in a future Airport Master Plan.
Despite these unresolved concerns, Minister King approved the Brisbane Airport 2026 Master Plan on 16 June 2026.
We are publishing the full correspondence below so the community can read the questions BFPCA asked, the responses provided on the Minister’s behalf, and judge for themselves whether adequate procedural assurance was provided before the Master Plan was approved.
23 February 2026 — BFPCA letter to Minister Catherine King
BFPCA’s initial request for procedural clarification before any decision on the Draft Master Plan.
24 March 2026 — Response from the Minister’s Chief of Staff
The Minister’s first response, including confirmation that supplementary noise contours were outside Airservices’ ANEF endorsement and that future Noise Action Plan flight path changes were not included in the ANEF.
10 April 2026 — BFPCA follow-up letter to Minister Catherine King
BFPCA restated five specific unanswered questions concerning Airservices’ environmental standard, EPBC Act considerations, the 2007 EIS gap analysis, ANEF currency and Departmental assurance.
29 May 2026 — Response from the Department of Infrastructure
The Department confirmed that the AA-NOS-ENV-2.100 gap analysis had not been undertaken and that potential future flight path changes were excluded from the approved Master Plan’s ANEF.
