[Peetwo]

Essendon Airport pushing curfew restrictions -


Via the Oz:

Jet operators back plan to ease Essendon curfew

Chris Cowan says ‘corporate jets are all about flying anywhere, any time’.

• The Australian
  
  
• 12:00AM September 22, 2017
  
• [size=undefined]ANNABEL HEPWORTH
  
  Aviation Editor
  Sydney
  @HepworthAnnabel
  [img=0x0]https://i1.wp.com/pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/d4b891a093ad6ddc703117011dc4fd61/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img][/size]
  

Corporate jet operators at Essendon Airport may no longer need to divert to Melbourne Airport during curfew hours under proposed changes the airport’s boss hopes will cut red tape.

Essendon Airport boss Chris Cowan has swung in behind plans to update the curfew, which applies between 11pm and 6am. But the airport says it is also open to supporting further changes pushed by community representatives.

An overhaul of the curfew at Essendon, the nation’s biggest corporate jet base, could also reignite debate about the way curfews work at Sydney, Adelaide and Coolangatta airports.

Under proposals the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development is consulting on, jet aircraft that meet “strict” noise criteria will be able to land during the curfew.

As well, under the proposals, non-emergency helicopters and propeller-driven aircraft would no longer be able to operate at ­Essendon during the curfew and the weight restriction for jets operating outside the curfew hours would be lifted from 45,000kg to 55,000kg.

Bill Shorten and the federal member for Wills, Labor MP Peter Khalil, have written to residents about the proposal, saying there will be a community forum next week “to discuss any concerns local residents may have with the proposed amendments and to hear the views of the community on this issue”.

Mr Cowan said the airport was committed to working with the community aviation consultation group and future meetings were planned.

“We think it’s a very balanced, very good proposal which is good for the operators, which is very important, but we think it’s also a better outcome for the community. But we as an airport rely very heavily on our community group for feedback ... we will support reasonable amendments to that if that’s what the community sees as relevant,” Mr Cowan said.

He said was happy to discuss measures such as a yearly cap on the numbers of jet movements during the curfew.

According to the department’s consultation paper, under the existing curfew aviation operators find it hard to connect to eastern seaboard cities for a full day of meetings and return to ­Essendon on the same day.

Mr Cowan said operators sometimes needed to divert to Melbourne Airport during the curfew and bring the plane back to Essendon the next day.

“In many instances, they are flying from remote airports (and) they don’t have the flexibility to arrive here ... corporate jets are all about flying anywhere, any time.

“This is one of those levers that they’re not going to use all the time.

“But having the flexibility to use it is very important to them.”

Essendon says modern jets can be quieter than many propeller aircraft and that the curfew didn’t cap movements or impose noise limits on smaller propeller planes, so says it believes changes could result in less noise.

Under the proposal, there would be a noise limit of 90 decibels on landing, a tougher standard than for Sydney, Adelaide and Coolangatta.

At the moment there is no cap on the propeller aircraft during curfew hours.

Mr Cowan said that as not all jets would be able to meet the proposed noise standards, “we therefore would like to see that over time that anyone who aspires to get some flexibility would move to have quieter jets”.

“So there might be some ongoing improvements during the day as well.”

Hmm...passing strange how M&M's old Department is suddenly promoting aviation at our secondary airports...


MTF...P2