Understanding flight paths at Sydney Airport
Minimising the number of aircraft noise affected residents around Sydney Airport has been the Australian Government’s objective through its directive to Airservices Australia to implement the Long Term Operating Plan (LTOP) for Sydney Airport. The LTOP is a preferential runway regime based on the principle of noise sharing and is achieved through the use of different combinations of flight paths in the vicinity of the airport.
According to Airservices, the LTOP aims to minimise aircraft noise impacts on residents by ensuring aircraft arrive and depart over water and non-residential areas as much as possible. When this is not possible, the objective is to provide breaks in the air traffic (often called periods of respite) to communities by changing runways to share the noise.
The paramount concern when selecting runways and flight paths at Sydney Airport is safety. As aircraft must take off and land into wind, the weather conditions present at the time generally dictate in which direction aircraft will fly.
The map below shows the primary flight paths at Sydney Airport with your area highlighted. Hover over each of the flight paths to see the operation type and runway used on each path.
Your location will display on the map based on your location input. Enter your address to see information relevant to where you live or your suburb to see information general to your suburb. If you choose not to enter your location, you will see information for Sydney CBD.
Previous
Next 
