Changes to flight paths on horizon

Wellington Airport is set to trial new flight paths, meaning jets arriving from Christchurch and from across the Tasman will chart a new course as they land.

Using satellite technology, the new performance-based navigation (PBN) will see some flights that currently fly up the Ka¯piti Coast before turning in above Tawa or Porirua instead take a curved path in airspace over Johnsonville, Churton Park and Amesbury.

The trials do not begin until September, but the airport has announced the move ahead of the installation of noise monitors ‘‘at key locations along the trial flight paths to establish the baseline level of noise’’ in April.

While the new flight paths will affect flights coming from both the north and the south, the paths for planes landing from the south, which make up about 70 per cent of all arrivals to the airport, will result in changes out to sea. Of the flights landing from the north, only about one in five will be affected, with many aircraft not yet having the required technology.

Information about the changes will begin to be delivered from today to residents in the areas that could be affected.

Greg Thomas, Wellington Airport’s general manager of communications, said the airport felt the amount of added noise created in the areas under the new paths was likely to be ‘‘negligible’’.

‘‘There is only 750 metres between the trial routes and the current routes,’’ Thomas said. ‘‘So we expect the noise effect will be negligible and possibly an improvement given the efficiency of the new PBN routes. However, noise monitoring will confirm this during the trial.’’

The technology is in use in Auckland and Queenstown.

According to the Board of Airline Representatives (Barnz), a lobby group for commercial airlines operating in New Zealand, using the new routes will save 900 tonnes of carbon emissions each year.

‘‘It will also mean a quieter approach to the airport by some aircraft,’’ Barnz executive director Justin Tighe-Umbers said. ‘‘Aircraft ... will be able to fly on minimum power settings throughout their approach all the way to the runway.’’

Airways New Zealand manager of air traffic operations Andy Boyd said the new paths were part of an initiative to modernise New Zealand’s airspace and align with global standards.