Some aircraft departing from Runway 14 (to the south) fly over residential areas near the airport, including Banora Point and Chinderah. A proposed change to this flight path was submitted to Airservices in 2012-13 by residents groups to the south of Gold Coast Airport. It aimed to reduce the noise impacts for residents by directing jet departures from Runway 14 to the south-west to maximise tracking over the Banora Point Golf Course.

Aircraft commenced flying the modified flight path in January 2015 under a 12-month trial which concluded in January 2016. This timeframe covered normal seasonal patterns and allowed the community to provide their feedback about the trial.

After conclusion of the trial a review was undertaken which included consideration of community feedback received and data from noise monitoring undertaken to determine whether there was any increase or reduction of noise experienced by local residents.

The trial did not achieve the intended noise reductions and also unintentionally concentrated flights over Farrants Hill. Due to this, and in consideration of community feedback, we decided not to implement the trial flight path permanently.

Reinstatement of the original Runway 14 departure procedure took effect on 23 June 2016. This required us to update procedures in compliance with current design rules and limitations. Waypoint locations remain the same, but the waypoint closest to the runway was changed from a fly-by to a fly-over.

Further information about the trial can be found on Engage Airservices website.

In 2010, the Gold Coast Airport Noise Abatement Consultative Committee (ANACC) requested we undertake a trial into widening the departure flight paths for Runway 14.

The trial looked at spreading out the jet departure paths for flights to specific destinations (including Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Townsville, Mount Isa and Cairns) in order to reduce the noise exposure to residents at Fingal Head, while maintaining minimal impact to other residential areas.

The trial reduced movements over the central area of Fingal Head, however community consultation showed that there was no support for the trial to be implemented permanently.

The flight path was not permanently implemented and the investigation was closed. 

In 2016, complainants living in Banora Point raised the issue of Virgin Australia Boeing 737s making early turns over residential areas on departure from Runway 14. We investigated the complaints and confirmed this was occurring.

Virgin Australia subsequently discovered a variation with the way some crews were entering data into the aircraft’s flight management system and issued a crew notice to correct this.

Since the notice took effect there have been no further complaints from residents.

During daylight savings the airport curfew operates on Queensland time with the result that NSW residents can be exposed to aircraft movements until 12 am instead of 11 pm. In 2015, a complainant asked us to investigate whether the preferred runway under the noise abatement procedures could be changed to Runway 32 (rather than Runway 14) between 10 pm and 11 pm Queensland time during daylight saving periods.

Data analysis of movements between 10 pm and 11 pm over three months found that movement numbers were low at this time. There were no movements at all on 33 nights, one movement on 34 nights, two movements on 17 nights, and three to four movements on seven nights.

Comparison of runway usage during the data collection period showed that usage of either runway at this time of year appeared to be almost equally shared, which weakened the case for a change of runway preference.

Because there are approximately three times more arrival movements than departures, for suburbs south of the airport, the proposed change would have a greater negative effect on those areas that are affected by arrival traffic than the positive effect it could have on some areas affected by departure traffic. All these areas south of the airport are in NSW and as such would be on daylight saving time.

The proposal was considered feasible from a safety and efficiency perspective. However, the low number of flights per night in the time period, the fact that many of these are spread between the north and south of the airport, and the fact that the majority of operations are arrivals rather than departures, indicated that any noise improvement would be minimal.

While there might be very small benefits for residents to the south of the Airport that are not overflown by arrival traffic, such as the residents of Fingal Head, this is a small population compared to the area that would either receive no benefit or would experience a worsening of their situation, such as suburbs in NSW under the arrival path and suburbs to the north including Tugun and Currumbin.

On balance, we found that there are insufficient departures between 10.00pm and 11.00 pm during daylight savings periods to outweigh potential negative impacts of the proposed change on other areas and qualify as a noise improvement for the whole community.

In 2016, a complainant raised a concern that Air Asia flights varied in altitude, with an evening flight being lower than a morning flight.

Our investigation found that there was an altitude difference, but that this was due to the different destinations of each flight. The morning flight was bound for Auckland, a much closer port than the destination of the evening flight, Kuala Lumpur.

The evening flight therefore carried a higher load of fuel to cover the distance of 6,500 kilometres to Malaysia compared to the 2,200 kilometre distance to Auckland. The weight of an aircraft affects its climb performance and it was this effect being noticed by the complainant.

Learn more about aircraft altitudes on our What are the rules about altitudes? page