Is a house under a flight path? How to check an address

To find out whether a house is under a flight path, check three things for the address: whether it sits inside an aircraft noise (ANEF) contour on the planning scheme, what the airport and Airservices flight path tools show for that spot, and how often and how low aircraft have been seen over it. The first is the planning control. The other two tell you what you will hear.

The short version

• ANEF contours decide what can be built near an airport. Under AS 2021, new housing is acceptable below ANEF 20, conditionally acceptable from 20 to 25 (with acoustic treatment), and unacceptable above 25.
• Being outside the ANEF 20 contour does not mean you will not hear aircraft. The contour is a yearly average forecast, and plenty of streets outside it have planes low overhead several times a day.
• Flight path tools from Airservices Australia and the major airports show where aircraft usually fly and how many pass at a given level of noise.
• Observed traffic at the address answers the buyer's question directly: how many aircraft a day, and how low.
• Flight paths change with runway use, wind, season and airspace redesign, so any answer describes the period it was measured over.

ANEF contours: the planning control

The Australian Noise Exposure Forecast is a set of contours drawn around an airport from a forecast of its future traffic. Councils and state planning schemes use them to control noise-sensitive uses such as housing, schools and hospitals, and AS 2021 sets out what building work is acceptable in each band and what acoustic treatment is needed.

Two things catch buyers out. First, the contour averages noise over a whole year, so a street that gets a burst of low arrivals on westerly days can sit outside it. Second, AS 2021 itself notes that the 20 ANEF line is hard to place accurately, because aircraft do not fly exactly the same track every time. Treat the contour as the answer to "what can be built here", not "will I hear planes".

Our free planning map viewer shows any ANEF or airport environs overlay that touches a lot, and the $9 Property Report records it on the Noise page.

Flight path tools from Airservices and the airports

Airservices Australia runs two free public tools. Aircraft in your Neighbourhood lets you enter an address or drop a pin and shows flight movements, heights and runway use for a 1 km square around it. WebTrak shows aircraft tracks near the major airports and can replay past days.

The major airports publish their own material too. Brisbane Airport's flight path tool shows arrival and departure paths for its jets and noise contours for a selected address. Many airports publish N70 contours: the number of flights a day loud enough (70 decibels or more outdoors) to interrupt a conversation. N70 is often a better guide to day-to-day nuisance than ANEF.

These are the authority on airport operations and are worth checking for any house you are serious about.

Observed aircraft over the address

The Property Report now includes an Aircraft Overflight page. It is built from months of aircraft positions broadcast by the aircraft themselves and recorded about every 40 seconds, over every capital city and most regional centres. That includes airliners, and many helicopters and light aircraft that broadcast their position.

For the address, the page gives:

• How often: roughly how many aircraft a day pass close enough to hear, with a margin
• How low: the closest regular pass, converted to the height it would need to be directly overhead to sound the same, because a plane 500 m to the side is quieter than one overhead at the same altitude
• Where it flies: whether the corridor is directly over the property or beside it
• Night: what was seen at night, stated as "not established" where too little has been recorded to say

It is kept separate from the ANEF page. One is the planning control; the other is what was seen. Outside the areas we watch, or where too little has been recorded nearby, the report says the address was not assessed rather than reading clear.

In our sample report for a house in The Gap, Brisbane, the page reads "Loud aircraft noise, about 2 a day": a regular approach corridor about 500 m to the side at about 2,000 ft equivalent. The same report's Noise page finds no mapped noise overlay on the lot.

Checking a whole suburb first

If you are still choosing where to buy, the suburb pages show what share of each suburb has had aircraft seen below 3,000 ft. Sydenham in Sydney is about 87%. Hendra in Brisbane is about 59%. The suburb figure tells you whether flight paths are a common issue there. It cannot tell you about one street, so check the address before you buy.

What to do before you sign

1. Check the planning map for an ANEF or airport environs overlay on the lot.
2. Look the address up on Airservices' Aircraft in your Neighbourhood and, near a major airport, the airport's own flight path tool.
3. Get the observed figures for the address: how many a day, how low, and whether the corridor is overhead or beside it.
4. Visit at peak times: early morning, evening, and on a day the wind favours the runway that uses that corridor.
5. Ask whether the nearest airport has a curfew, and whether any runway or flight path changes are proposed.
6. If you plan to build or extend, ask whether acoustic treatment would be required or worthwhile.

About this article. Published by LayeredGeo and written from the published research cited in the Sources section above. It is general information about how property and ground conditions are assessed in Australia, not engineering, planning, legal or financial advice, and it is not specific to any property. Check anything that matters against the source dataset or a suitably qualified professional before you rely on it. If you spot something wrong, tell us at hello@layeredgeo.com.au and we will fix it.

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