PIR6 - A new East Coast route over Maria Island, Marion Bay and Dunalley

Recommendation 6 of Airservices’s flawed post-implementation review of its Hobart airspace design, recommends creating a new arrivals flight path over Maria Island, Marion Bay and Dunalley.

BACK STORY

Following its 2018 review of Hobart’s airspace, Airservices decided that a proposed arrivals flight path down Tasmania’s East Coast over Maria Island, Marion Bay and Dunalley was unviable due to the negative impact on community, environment and tourism. The route would also have required the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to approve additional airspace, which it refused to do.

SECLA and the community strongly supported this decision during the consultation and in submissions to the post-implementation review.

However, following a community member’s suggestion, Airservices decided to reinstate the East Coast proposal, with a new route flying on the western side of Maria Island directly over Mercury Passage across Marion Bay, then turning right across the Narrows - new line in yellow below.

Exisiting path orange, proposed path yellow

Impact

This proposed flight path will create many negative impacts:

  1. Just like in 2017, the route will impact communities that have never been previously overflown. This time it is Triabunna, Orford and Spring Beach that will lose their tranquil skies. Have ASA learned nothing in the seven years since that debacle? Many people in these communities will have either not been aware of this proposal, or will not realise how impactful it may be for them – it is hard to judge this if you have not been exposed to it. By the time they feel they want to speak up it may be too late!

  2. The communities proposed to be overflown by the new flight path are home to 2700 permanent residents, as well as many businesses which rely on the quietness of these areas. In addition, many Tasmanians have holiday residences in these areas, growing the population to 15,000 residents in holiday periods. These people come for the tranquil nature of the East Coast, not to experience the constant noise of overflying aircraft. Their visitation is critical to the economic and social sustainability of these communities. There are also 350,000 interstate and international tourists who visit the east coast each year for its scenery, tranquillity and heritage.

  3. Communities such as Bream Creek, Marion Bay, Copping, Boomer Bay and Dunalley, as well as trying to cope with existing aircraft noise from the West will be even more heavily impacted by aircraft noise, closer, and travelling over water, from the East.

  4. The route flies directly adjacent to the World Heritage listed Maria Island. Darlington Convict Station on Maria Island is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site, managed by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service. In addition, the entire of Maria Island is a National Park, renowned for its tranquillity, history and wildlife, including a disease free population of the critically endangered Tasmanian devil. New aircraft noise will be disruptive to the island’s wildlife, and to the 50,000 people who visit each year to enjoy the serenity of the island. The noise of regular jet traffic noise is not compatible with the world heritage, conservation, and tourism values of this area.

  5. The East Coast path flies directly overhead or adjacent to large areas of land and sea which are recognised and protected for their high conservation values. This includes National Parks, World Heritage areas, Coastal Wetlands and Beaches, Nature Reserves, Marine Conservation Reserves, and Protected Areas on Private Property and has potential to significantly disturb the wildlife population of these areas.

  6. his flight path will impose new aircraft noise on some of Tasmania’s most iconic tourism attractions including Maria Island Walk, Bangor Vineyard Shed, Bream Creek Vineyard, Spring Bay Mill, Dunalley Bay Distillery and many more. These businesses include multiple winners of state and national Tourism Awards, showcasing some of the best regional experiences in Australia. These businesses rely, in part, on the tranquillity of their quiet regional locations for their success.

  7. The proposed flight path is 11 nautical miles longer than the existing path, and will burn more fuel, releasing an additional 208kg of CO2 per flight amounting to around an extra 270 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere per year based on current flight numbers. ASA’s’ Flight Path Design Principles are required to facilitate operational efficiency, and hence reduce CO2 emissions. This proposed route conflicts with this imperative.

  8. More complexity will be un-necessarily introduced to the arrival flight paths into Hobart. ASA recognizes that the existing shorter flight paths provide significant operational advantages over the proposed longer East Coast flight path. The existing shorter approaches:

    • Are safe and efficient

    • Reduce track miles

    • Are a more predictable procedure and provide better aircraft sequencing into Hobart Airport

    • Require less Air Traffic Control intervention

Current status

Airservices is currently consulting on this proposal, with the Fact Sheet here:

https://engage.airservicesaustralia.com/81678/widgets/390234/documents/298409

What you can do

Airservices has stated many times that it is looking for noise sharing across communities, but this proposal does not provide noise sharing, it’s just moving noise impacts to other communities.

There are other viable alternatives, such as an approach to the airport from the West at higher altitude, turning out in Storm Bay, a long approach out wide of Maria Island and the Tasman Peninsula, coming up Storm Bay, and a preferred runway policy, where aircraft arrive from the north is used whenever possible instead of approaching from the north. While we acknowledge that the first two options will create longer track miles and subsequent emissions, we believe that there is a net benefit to the community by doing so.

If you agree that the East Coast flightpath is a bad idea then please provide your feedback to before 1 December 2024, when submissions close:

If you know people or businesses who may be impacted by this proposal, please encourage them to provide feedback before it’s too late.