VA562 misses Sydney curfew but lines up for approach anyway

[justinbrett]

Out of curiousity, is the curfew at SYD purely due to noise levels? or are there other factors?

Surely noone can now claim they didn't know about the airports existence when building/purchasing a house.

Most people bought their property (in the last 30 years) with the understanding a curfew was in place. That argument works both ways.

 

[RooFlyer]

Exactly! Anyone living under the flight path today knowingly bought / rented there, as its been an airport for 105 years.

... and they knew there was a curfew.

The development of WSI will guarantee that the curfew at SYD will remain.

 

[MH_fan]

I guess the trade-off for the curfew is having an international airport so close to the city. The curfew is annoying but I can live with it for that reason.
I used to fly VA562 a lot. Luckily, we've never missed the curfew but cut it pretty close a few times. The QF flight from Perth leaves even later than the VA one and cuts it even closer. Again, never missed a curfew, but the closest to it was just under 10 mins to spare!

 

[XWu]

... and they knew there was a curfew.

The development of WSI will guarantee that the curfew at SYD will remain.

What most people didn’t realise at the time back in 1995 was how long it took for WSI at Badgerys Creek to get built only 30 years later, with most the the actual movement in the last 7 years.

I suspect the owners of SYD may have a hand in that… and they also refused the offer to build and run WSI.

Agree with the statement that the SYD curfew will stay because of WSI, but I would also say that WSI will not have a curfew because of SYD has a curfew!

 

[Quickstatus]

I suspect the owners of SYD may have a hand in that… and they also refused the offer to build and run WSI.

SYD was not the road block. It only had a first right of refusal to build any 2nd airport as part of the privatisation of SYD . The delays to get to where we are now with WSI has been decades in the making - way back to the 60s involving location and whether it was needed and not SYD airport dragging its feet.

After finalising the site and offering the build to SYD, SYD triggered their right of refusal in 2017 so then anyone could have put up their hand to build it. In the end the Govt is building it

 

[RooFlyer]

@markis10 - how do airports handle non-emergency diverted arrivals? Do they charge a penalty fee to the airline on top of gate and other charges? Or is it come on in, make yourself comfortable.

I'm thinking with WSI as a back-up the airlines might 'try on' more late departures to SYD, hoping they will beat the curfew, and knowing WSI is there and if needs be they can unload their pax to public transport there. Might WSI impose a special charge on SYD diversions, because they can and it would be cheaper for the airline than diversion to BNE etc.

 

[markis10]

@markis10 - how do airports handle non-emergency diverted arrivals? Do they charge a penalty fee to the airline on top of gate and other charges? Or is it come on in, make yourself comfortable.

Each airport is slightly different, generally they hit the airline with their additional costs for staffing eg
Where an airline requests that a Domestic Terminal be kept open overnight, SYD will invoice that airline for the costs that SYD incurs in opening the terminal overnight (on a pass-through basis), subject to a minimum charge of $500 (GST exclusive) or $550 (GST inclusive) per night.
Overnight opening is subject to SYD’s discretion and SYD will not consent to the opening of a Domestic Terminal overnight unless the airline provides at least 2 airline staff to assist for the duration of the overnight opening.

 

[Aeryn]

... and they knew there was a curfew.

Curfew was only introduced in 1995; plenty living under the flight path happily bought their homes before then. Planes are quieter now than in 1994.

and knowing WSI is there and if needs be they can unload their pax to public transport there.

LOL there will be no 24*7 public transport to WSI. It would be a very expensive taxi /uber ride to the city for flights landing during SYD curfew.

Heavy rail stops around midnight and resumes just before 6am. Whilst there will be a metro linking WSI to the heavy rail at St Mary's because the unions interfered the metro didn't end up being driverless as originally intended so will also not be running in the wee hours.

 

[Warragul]

Curfew was only introduced in 1995; plenty living under the flight path happily bought their homes before then. Planes are quieter now than in 1994.

That's when the Sydney Airport Curfew Act was implemented enshrining the curfew into law. There had been a curfew for many years prior to that. Probably starting around the time of jet aircraft appearing.

 

[markis10]

That's when the Sydney Airport Curfew Act was implemented enshrining the curfew into law. There had been a curfew for many years prior to that. Probably starting around the time of jet aircraft appearing.

Correct, I worked in Sydney tower in the eighties with a curfew.

 

[RooFlyer]

LOL there will be no 24*7 public transport to WSI. It would be a very expensive taxi /uber ride to the city for flights landing during SYD curfew.

LOL. Depends on your definition of public transport You would hope an aircraft diverted because it missed SYD curfew would have its airline provide busses for its pax and their luggage back to SYD but if I lived in western Sydney or if I was HLO, I'd be on the app requesting an Uber and messaging that there would be an extra $X for them to wait.

 

[RooFlyer]

subject to a minimum charge of $500 (GST exclusive) or $550 (GST inclusive) per night.

Thanks. That seems an incredibly small amount for a minimum!

By the sound of it, a weather-related diverted landing during daytime to an Oz airport wouldn't result in large charges to the airline. I'm a bit surprised, seeing how rapacious most of the airport operators are.

 

[L2.]

LOL there will be no 24*7 public transport to WSI. It would be a very expensive taxi /uber ride to the city for flights landing during SYD curfew.

Heavy rail stops around midnight and resumes just before 6am.

Sydney has a network of NightRide bus routes that follow most railway lines (including the metro) overnight.

It would be likely that the WSA metro would also get a NightRide bus route, although it could be a torturously slow journey to the CBD. The N71 bus takes 84 minutes from St Marys to Central.

The first train of the morning from St Marys is at 3:22am on weekdays, and 3:55am on weekends as per the Western Line schedule, so assuming that a bus to there runs at those hours whilst the WSA metro doesn't, if a flight has been diverted late enough it might be an option to wait for that.

Unless I was jetlagged and had no chance of sleep, none of these middle-of-the-night public transport adventures from WSA sound too appealing though. Neither would an Uber fare to the CBD either, I guess.