QC4 Noise HKG
 

Another hit to HK right when freight is the golden goose.

For those not in the know the 747-400Fs are deemed too noisy so no departures can be scheduled between 1am and 6:59am which will be expanded to 11pm to 6:59am next year.

Assume being delayed is allowed as it’s still a 24hr airport.

Only the 747-8F is acceptable I believe.

Sounds perfect if your on the Freighter, won't have to work those god awful hours!

The challenge is for CX to schedule the 747-400ERF’s appropriately and not lose any airframe utilisation. Longer term some of the 777 airframes currently parked in Alice Springs will probably have a can opener taken to them and converted to a 777BCF.

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r..._zfChq810Tn9JV

CX at least has the flexibility as it is home base. Other operators like Atlas etc can’t swap tails as easily. Loads of airports in Europe have curfews. Don’t get me wrong, its a shame but you could work around it.

what about AHK? These “noisy” A300’s have the same engines as B744’s?

The Chinese seem to be doing everything they can to terminate CX.

It’s a quota system (Quota Count) the problem for CX being the ERFs chew up 4 points every departure during the late night period. The A300 of air Hong Kong with PW4168s is 2 points, looks like no attention given to thrust levels like the UK. A regional ERF flight would be min to medium thrust every departure. A300?

Why is AAHK/CAD enforcing this now though?
The QC scheme was introduced when there were 230 flights scheduled between 10pm and 7am (defined as “night” in the Integrated Noise Model ) and AA was in danger of busting their agreed noise exposure forecast contour limits.
Given the current circumstances, it seems unlikely those sort of numbers will be resumed for another few years at least.
Apart from a few cargos, what else is there overnight at present?? The QC scheme must be hugely undersubscribed right now surely- what’s the pressure the get rid of a few QC4s when the industry is on its knees??

Same as goose stepping really. They’ve been told to do it.

Apologies to the fish kept awake after midnight.

It's the number one reason why all the pink dolphins are leaving the area.

Delighted to report from the team that did a dolphin count today, that they found plenty. The cancelation of the Macau ferries has made a big difference and it seems has allowed for quieter breeding areas.

Back to the thread, I would be delighted as a chronically tired flight crew to be told that night flights had been curtailed. So would the residents of Park Island. A win win situation that needs a smart mind to re-schedule the operation to optimise the multi sector nature of the freighter. Not a deal breaker.

Yeah... nah.

They may worry about dolphins, residents of Park Island or sleeping fish, but they certainly don’t worry about pilots. They’ll just schedule you to depart prior to the “curfew”, turnaround in India somewhere during the middle of the night, and return to HKG just after the airport re-opens to QC4 aircraft. Voilà.