In response to the Sunshine Coast Airport Community Aviation Forum (CAF) conveying members’ concerns to Airservices Australia (ASA) following the October 2023 Post Implementation Review (PIR) report, the following has been received:

Airservices acknowledges the delay in commencing actions responding to the recommendations of the October 2023 Post Implementation Review (PIR) report. As you note, our community engagement team have continued to keep the CAF and interested community members updated on the potential timing for this work to commence, noting the need to settle Brisbane flight path changes ahead of considering changes in the neighbouring Sunshine Coast airspace. When it became clear we would not have the resolution to Brisbane’s changes in 2025, we made the decision to commence with the non-flight path related recommendations. Engagement timing was announced in July 2025.

I appreciate that most community members would likely be interested in the recommendations related to flight path change investigations, as these offer the greatest opportunity for noise improvements. We are committed to progressing this work as soon as practical. At this time, we believe this should be possible in the second half of this year, following receipt of recommendations from the final package of Brisbane work from our consultants, which we are expecting around the middle of the year.

I am advised that the timing of the engagement conducted over recent months was not initially designed to straddle the holiday season. The formal four-week feedback period ended prior to commencement of the school holidays. We promoted the opportunity to make submissions to mid-January 2026 and as you note, we subsequently extended this a second time to the end of January, in response to community requests. We also hosted an additional online engagement session for any community member who wished to attend.

Please be assured that Airservices is committed to the delivery of the PIR recommendations, but the potential changes to Brisbane operations are a relevant factor that we need to have certainty on ahead of progressing these actions for the Sunshine Coast.

We acknowledge Airservices Australia’s advice regarding the delays and sequencing of works, including the dependency on outcomes from Brisbane airspace changes, and will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates to the community as they become available.

Further Information

Previous updates on our website www.sandybolton.com/?s=flight+paths

Sunshine Coast Airport Flight Path Changes PIR Final Report https://engage.airservicesaustralia.com/46871/widgets/249990/documents/270738

Latest updates on the Sunshine Coast Airport PIR recommendation implementation https://engage.airservicesaustralia.com/sc-pir-implementation

For any enquiries relating to the Federal Government and flight paths please contact your local Federal (Commonwealth) MP’s office: