Perth Airport does NOT need a curfew — and here’s why.
Time and time again, are calls for Australia’s fourth largest airport to get a curfew. Time and time again, I am driven up the wall due to the remarkable complaints some people have in regards to this.
Firstly, the great argument between Perth Airport and residents in regards to noise needs to stop — this has been going on for quite a while, with the same mistakes being made. This is a short (in comparison to others I've created) opinion piece as to what I feel about the prolonged issue currently.
Airport presence
The fact that the airport has been around for a VERY long time should be no surprise to the residents who live in surrounding areas and who are influenced by this noise.
Basically, what I am saying is, you choose to live here, so deal with the noise regardless of whether you are young or old. If you don’t like it, just move — it’s actually far more effective than being apart of the more than 400 people complaining about it this month.
Noise insulation costs
The idea of a $2 tax for each person travelling through the airport is wrong. If we take into account 14+ million passengers travelled through the airport last year, you would only accumulate approximately $40 million at most.
This is simply not enough for the thousands of residents who live around the noise-affected areas and for which noise-insulation devices are to be installed for. Government officials, please work on your basic arithmetic.
Lost economic revenue
Next, the idea of a curfew drives me up the wall. The majority of international flights to and from Asia and red-eye flights from the east coast arrive and depart between 10pm and 2am.
Why?
Because budget carriers, which make up one third of the flights into Perth find it cheap to.
If a curfew were to be implemented, such flights cannot occur and will provoke a downturn in tourism, thus a downturn in the state’s economy due to lost growth and revenue will also occur. And, with the budget deficit, don't we need all the money that we can grab?
ABOVE: An infographic by Perth Airport showing its importance to the state. (Perth Airport)
Technological advancement
The future of air travel is here. There are 21 weekly services of the Boeing 787 ‘Dreamliner’, the quietest passenger aircraft around.
The super-jumbo, the A380, which recently launched, is quiet in comparison to other aircraft in the last twenty years too. Air travel is getting more efficient, and this goes the same in technological development.
Existing procedures
Next, current noise abatement procedures are in place and are suffice.
Airliners climb higher on departure at night compared to during the day and have strict regulations as to how high they can fly over residential areas at different times of the day. Although, you can't help adverse weather conditions, but surely that is not an issue when safety is always of paramount importance.
I could keep going. But, I hope you get the idea that there are implications if such actions are undertaken.
To find out more about aircraft noise, read this. It has been published for a reason.
— Luke, editor@ypphupdates.com
Get in touch with me on Twitter @mcconvilleluke
