Melbourne Airport Third Runway

The services included development of preliminary airspace design including flight paths, runway modes of operation, a concept of operations and consequential assumptions for aircraft allocation to runways, dependent of a range of criteria. These inputs were then used in the aircraft noise impact assessment undertaken by specialist subconsultants.

The airspace architecture design process involved close collaboration with Airservices Australia to deliver a preliminary airspace design which minimises the residual impacts of aircraft noise on surrounding communities, while ensuring adequate airspace capacity and safe operations for the Melbourne basin airspace. In particular, consideration of interactions with Essendon Airport operations was an important driver of the design. Flight paths and runway operating modes were optimised based on best-practice airspace design principles.

We subsequently prepared the draft chapter describing the airspace architecture for inclusion in the Major Development Plan (MDP) for the runway development. L+R Airport Consulting also prepared the Hazards and Risks of Aircraft Operations chapter for the MDP. This involved identification of the principal safety considerations and an assessment of the impacts of the RDP on safe operation of aircraft. A key element of this assessment was the evaluation of public safety risk to third parties in the vicinity of runway ends.