It was revealed in today's Weekend Australian that rather than making air travel to and from Hobart Airport safer, Airservices's new flight paths have led to an increase in safety incidents.
Two post-implementation review reports have detailed serious flaws in the implementation of the paths, with the timing primarily driven by a need to relocate the VOR navigation beacon to accommodate the airport's runway extension - not by safety as Airservices claims.
Aircraft Noise Ombudsman (ANO) Narelle Bell has released a report which comprehensively outlines Airservices Australia's failure to properly conduct a noise impact assessment and consult with communities in the rollout of the new concentrated Hobart flightpaths.
Today, the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman Narelle Bell presented her findings and recommendations to the Airservices Board. She has been conducting a special investigation into Airservices's handling of public consultation and complaint-handling in the implementation of the new Hobart flight paths.
Airservices CEO Jason Harfield was asked a series of questions about the new flight paths in Hobart at Additional Estimates hearings on Monday 26 February. Unfortunately when asked about the amended flight path being implemented on 1 March, he said it would be 'as close as possible to the previous flight path', leaving the impression the problem was fixed.
Local residents attended a meeting of the Hobart Airport Community Aviation Consultation Group (CACG) on Tuesday 20th February to hear an update on the flight path review from Airservices Australia representatives.
They provided an update on the review, but little more than we already know from the Terms of Reference, i.e that they are not currently planning to consult with residents until August.
On 31 January, Airservices quietly published the Terms of Reference for their review of the Hobart SIDs and STARs without informing complainants or the Aircraft Noise Ombudsman.
Apart from a long list of constraints, some of which are repeated twice, the only new information is about how residents will be consulted. The answer is: they won't be - until after the findings and recommendations are completed in August 2018 - 6 months away!
Airservices Australia has decided to again disregard resident feedback and proceed with its preferred Option 2. Airservices has said it will implement a slightly modified version of the arrival route to Runway 30 by the end of March 2018, and conduct a longer term review of the route over 18 months (read the report).
Airservices has announced that a 'drop-in' community consultation will take place on Saturday 11 November from 11am - 1pm at the Dunalley-Tasman Neighbourhood House. In addition to the short notice given, no proposals are being made available ahead of the meeting, and feedback provided will not be on the public record.
