EXPLANATORY STATEMENT: UPDATING THE LIST OF LOW NOISE JETS PERMITTED TO OPERATE AT SYDNEY AIRPORT DURING THE CURFEW PERIOD
Section 15 of the Act provides that jet aircraft that:
- have a maximum take-off weight of 34,000 kilograms or less;
- meet Chapter 3 noise standards set under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Annex 16; and
- are included in a notice published in the Gazette;
may take off and land on specified runways during the curfew period at Sydney Airport. The list covers aircraft types that are interchangeably referred to in the industry as light jets, business jets or low-noise jets.
The list of permitted aircraft was revised in December 1999, and more recently in October and November 2005 to allow quieter aircraft that better ICAO noise standards to operate under the curfew arrangement.
The Australian Business Aircraft Association (ABAA) sought to have the approved list expanded to include a number of modern, new-generation, low noise jets. Airservices Australia provided technical advice confirming that all the aircraft types put forward by the ABAA for inclusion in the approved list satisfy the “low noise jet” criteria.
Consultation requirements to amend the list
Amendment of the list of approved light jet aircraft required the publication of a notice in the Gazette pursuant to subsection 15(2) of the Act. Such a notice is a disallowable instrument. Subsection 15(6) of the Act requires that a consultation process be followed before such a notice is published. This process is set out in clauses 3-6 of the Schedule to the Act, Consultation Procedure and involves the:
preparation of a written proposal;
publication of a notice in a daily Sydney newspaper inviting the public to make written submissions; and
consideration of any comments or submissions received.
The October 2005 list was tabled at a meeting of the Sydney Airport Community Forum held on 4 March 2005. The Forum did not raise any objection to the proposal. Accordingly, on 20 May 2005, the Minister for Transport and Regional Services gave approval for this consultation process to be undertaken.
Notice of the proposed amendment was published in the Sydney Morning Herald on 11 June 2005, inviting comments over the next 28 days. The Department did not receive any adverse comment to the proposal.
On 4 October 2005 the Minister for Transport and Regional Services approved the proposed amendment to the List of Permitted Aircraft, pursuant to s15 of the Act and signed the relevant instrument.
It was subsequently noted that the ABAA application had also requested that the listing for the Beech 400A be updated to reflect the aircraft’s new name. The Beech 400A was renamed Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP although the aircraft remains the same. The change in name is intended to align the aircraft with later generation aircraft in the Hawker XP range following changes to Hawker Pacific’s corporate structure. It is also noted that the Canadair Challenger 604 was inadvertently omitted from the list signed on 4 October 2005.
These changes have now been included in the latest amended list signed on 8 November 2005. These changes refer only to the re-inclusion of an aircraft that was already in the list dated 13 December 1999, and the addition of a new brand name for another aircraft that was also in the lists dated 13 December 1999 and 4 October 2005.