Last week’s meeting of the Kingscliff Ratepayers and Progress Association (KRPA) resolved to write directly to Federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese asking him to review flight paths before signing off on a new Master Plan for Coolangatta Airport.
The meeting heard new navigation systems in place at other airports in Australia permit curved flight paths designed to avoid population concentrations. The letter will request the Minister to utilise these newer technologies which could allow aircraft to fly in and out over less inhabited areas.
The Association believes presently the voices of residents are just not being heard. It is taking this step because it believes current policies are allowing GCAL the right to a 300 per cent increase in air traffic over suburbs close to the runway centreline without any real process of remediation or compensation for those affected.
Under the revised GCAL Master Plan these traffic increases are to be accompanied by increases in aircraft size, increases in international freight tonnages, an associated southern runway extension which lowers the altitude of departing aircraft, and installation of an Instrument landing System (ILS) to lock approaching aircraft on the runway centreline much further out from the airport than at present.
Airline operating practices now also tend to flatten approach and departure angles to save on fuel.
The combined impact of all these major changes hits Tweed residents far more severely than Gold Coast residents according to group vice president Scott Sledge.
“This is particularly since the distance to the coast via runway centreline is only 3km from the north but 13km via the south, Tweed residents suffer much more suburban over-flight under these changes, yet have little say in the GCAL decisions,” he said. He said the group believed a direct approach to the Minister may be the best course left for long-suffering Kingscliff residents.
Mr Sledge said some of the Association members had a meeting of the Community Aviation Consultation Group (CACG) held on February 22, when some residents from Tweed Heads, Banora Point, Oxley Cove, Chinderah, Kingscliff, Salt, Cudgen, Fingal and Casuarina complained about increased noise over their houses and pollution from the planes.
He said delegates were disappointed that there was no clear statement from this meeting regarding any proposed mitigation of the foreshadowed noise impacts.
Some residents under flight paths say they don’t dare use water collected from their roofs because of pollution from the jet engines.
A roofing plumber said it was true that many houses near the airport had a coating of black soot on their roofs which could only have come from aircraft fuel particulates.
Mr Sledge said the meeting was told that no fuel was being “dumped” over housing as dumping is restricted to air space over water.
There is also an issue with the airport’s runway landing threshold being extended about 380m further south which would cause larger aircraft to fly lower over the Kingscliff area.
Long-serving residents representative on the Aircraft Noise Abatement Consultative Committee (ANACC), Barry Jephcote, said that part of the noise increase comes from aircraft taking off at a lower angle to save fuel and therefore flying lower over nearby housing. He said that the airport is projected to increase by 300 per cent in traffic and in size of planes as the airport gets busier and especially when air cargo increases. One option is for the cargo function to be shifted to Brisbane and goods brought to the Gold Coast by road and rail.
KRPA Vice President Scott Sledge asked whether the projected increase in air traffic has taken into consideration the rising cost of fossil fuels and whether more goods and passengers could go onto trains if the rail option is developed.
“Rising fuel costs will make the air option more costly and may make rail more attractive in future,” Mr. Sledge said.
“So far, the most ecological transport system is being neglected. I am encouraged that the NSW government has recently announced a transport feasibility study into linking the rail lines from Casino north to the airport and connecting there with Queensland Railways.”
The residents voted to write to the Federal Transport Minister, Mr Anthony Albanese. KRPA research officer Helen Roach said that the proposed Instrument Landing System (ILS) is the wrong technology as it requires a straight–in approach from about 15 km from the runway.
”There are better technologies available, such as Required Navigation Performance or RNP, which is a GPS-based system and allows flight paths to be designed to avoid noise-sensitive areas”, she said.
“Because it does not require a straight-in approach, RNP has other benefits over ILS. In a 12 month trial at Brisbane Airport, Qantas estimates that RNP reduced carbon emissions by 650,000kg, and saved 200,000kg of fuel.”
Currently pilots are required to pull out of an approach if they cannot see the complete runway due to poor weather. Mr Jephcote said that new technology will allow aircraft to land on instruments during low visibility and reduce the number of noise producing/fuel wasting aborted landings.
