Lifestyle association proud of ‘favourable’ ILS outcome

I WOULD like to commend Luke Mortimer for his balanced reporting of the commissioning of the Instrument Landing System at Gold Coast Airport.

No restrictions were placed on the use of the ILS in the original approval, despite the acknowledged adverse noise impacts over our beach suburbs.

If the Gold Coast Airport was planning to only use the ILS in bad weather conditions why did it spend hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting the Gold Coast Lifestyle Association (GCLA) in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to avoid sensible restrictions?

Many senior businesspeople, plus the GCLA, representing the community, tried to negotiate with the airport without success. Hence the protracted, expensive, legal process and delay to the implementation of the ILS.

There has been no concern regarding safety at the airport raised by any official organisation, ie: Airservices, airport, CASA. The stated reason for the installation was only to improve landing reliability.

The GC Airport already has one of the best landing-reliability ratings in the country, partially due to our inherently good weather, plus previous installation of modern satellite technology in 2014 which can be used with the flight paths over the ocean.

There may be a slight reduction in the already minimal number of diversions with the ILS but the GC Airport has never claimed that diversions will no longer occur as there are some weather conditions that aircraft cannot land in, regardless of the available technology.

There were no adverse impacts on the Commonwealth Games by not having ILS at the GC Airport and the Commonwealth Games were not even mentioned in the ILS application document.

The GCLA is proud of what we achieved in the AAT for the benefit of the community and tourism operators. The ILS is available for the limited occasions it is required, ie bad weather conditions, but our beaches will not be subjected to the scourge of aircraft noise at other times.

As the Gold Coast weather is rightly known to be “beautiful one day, perfect the next” the community should be largely unaware that there is an ILS at the GC Airport, which is an excellent outcome for all.

JENNIFER RENISON SECRETARY, GOLD COAST LIFESTYLE ASSOCIATION