The whole curfew thing needs to go anyway. It’s an outdated political move to get a few votes. The airport has been there longer than the residents. If you don’t like the noise don’t buy next to the pub.

At that time of night, was there not another ‘spare’ 20 or so 73’s that could have done that flight….

It was also introduced at a time when everything ran off JT8Ds or R-R Spays.

Interested to see the justification behind that decision. What is "exceptional" about a maintenance issue?

because someone "important" was on board and had to be in melb

From today's online Sydney Morning Herald: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/...10-p5jcmi.html

"International airlines will no longer be able to use an exemption that permits some aircraft to land at Sydney Airport in the hour before the overnight curfew ends each morning once a major new rival opens in two years’ time.

"The opening of the curfew-free Western Sydney International Airport in late 2026 will trigger the end of airlines’ ability to use the incumbent Kingsford-Smith Airport’s so-called shoulder period, from 5am to 6am.

"This has sparked a push by Sydney Airport to overturn the looming change, arguing it fails to recognise airlines’ global flight schedules..."

So, an aircraft that is running early will have to divert to Badger's Crack, or hold for an hour? Brilliant thinking, promote that person.

...or delay their departure to arrive on schedule outside the curfew. It's not that hard.

so if there's unexpected tailwind all fuel and time savings are thrown out the window yea great for the enviro just burn afew more tons of jeta to please some rich people

The shoulder period between 5 and 6 am has only ever been for a dedicated handful of approved flights and cannot exceed 7/day or 35/week. You can’t just rock up early and expect to land before 6 o’clock.

Mate, I could perhaps understand your confusion if you've never driven anything bigger than a Cessna. If your flight planning system uses data that is so inaccurate you need to hold for an extended period due to a curfew, then may I kindly suggest you need a better system? In close to 30 years of long-haul flying not once did we arrive any more than about 5-10 minutes earlier than flight planned, and that's after being airborne for 14 hours or so. If we were flying to a destination that had a curfew or ground handling limitation that precluded an early arrival, we would delay the departure if necessary, to ensure we didn't arrive too early. If we subsequently found we were going to arrive a few minutes early, the obvious solution was to slow down. As I said previously, it's not that hard. :rolleyes:

my cesana operation flies regularly between australia and USA so thanks for your advice 30 years experience.

You're welcome. Do let us know next time you find yourself running an hour early due to an "unexpected tailwind". :rolleyes:

Some interesting excuses in the current laundry list of exemptions. Apparently we have alot of "unforeseen" weather in this country. 19/12 had storms on the forecast all day. All inbound aircraft would have had 60 minutes holding regardless of where there came from. Not exactly "unforeseen". Definitely not unforeseen as CASA define it that's for sure.


https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/si...ort-1-2024.pdf

The curfew start is more "flexible" through tactical real time dispensations than the end time which is more related to ongoing longer term flight-planning approvals.

I tried that once, when I told the gate staff to hold boarding for half an hour due to stronger tailwinds and our destination had a specific runway opening time after night works. We were told in no uncertain terms by the company that under no circumstances were we to delay the departure, even if it meant we had to hold when we arrived at our destination. Apparently OTP was more important than burning an extra tonne or 2 of fuel 🤷‍♂️. We flew at green dot most of the way but still ended up holding for half an hour. At least we were first in the queue at opening time. 😂

buzzbox has been flying 14hour sectors 30 years ago maybe his company should advice us all on how to do it

Unfortunately, there's no cure for management stupidity. Thank goodness some (most?) airlines have more common sense.

Perhaps they should. You could certainly learn a thing or two.

And I didn’t say it was “30 years ago”.

Maybe you could spend a bit of time learning how to spell and use punctuation on your long Pacific crossings in your Cesana?

Half an hour early? Seriously? Something wrong with your flight planning.