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Melbourne airport's 24-hour operation at risk from encroaching suburbia: expert

Xinhua, July 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Australia's Melbourne Airport is in jeopardy of losing its ability to operate 24 hours a day, according to a leading city planning expert.

RMIT University city planner professor Michael Buxton said gradual encroachment of housing developments around the airport's border had eroded its noise buffer zone.

"There's something of a perfect storm coming for aircraft at Melbourne Airport, because it's enjoyed a curfew-free status because its site has been ... relatively free of residential development around it," Buxton told the Australia Broadcast Corporation on Tuesday.

"The trouble is that passenger numbers are doubling roughly every 10 years and residential development has been coming closer and closer to the airport."

Tullamarine replaced Essendon Airport as Melbourne's main commercial terminal in 1970.

The original plan was for the area of Tullamarine, 25 km north of downtown Melbourne, to remain relatively clear of residential development with the city poised to grow around the proximity.

Buxton pointed the finger squarely at the feet of the Victorian government for neglecting to address the issue.

"Nobody at a state government level has been keeping a close enough eye on this, and the Commonwealth government has really dropped the ball on it, despite their policies to stop it," Buxton said.

"We've had this sort of gradual creep of residential development, and now it's the critical threshold... Unless really tough new responses are initiated by the Government, the curfew- free status will go."

Planning minister Richard Wynne said Tuesday the Victorian government was working on a framework to safeguard Melbourne Airport's curfew-free status, which is a major economic advantage over other airports, such as Sydney, without the status.

"[The framework] will be incorporated into the planning schemes for the relevant municipalities... which goes to the very question of addressing noise and lighting guidelines and so forth and obviously to stop the erosion of the exclusion area for housing around the airport," Wynne said. Endi