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Melbourne Airport’s Third Runway Project involves the construction of a new north-south runway to provide more capacity for passengers, exports, support competition, reduce delays and enable economic growth.

The third runway will allow 136,500 more arrivals and departures per year, making way for growth to 76 million passengers by 2042. As more flights support Melbourne’s growth, some areas in Melbourne are likely to experience more aircraft noise.

A Noise Sharing Plan is one way to manage noise and is a formal condition of approval for Melbourne Airport’s third runway under the Airports Act 1996 (Cth).

Noise sharing at Melbourne Airport means that, outside of busy periods (peak hours) and when safety and weather conditions permit, aircraft noise may be distributed to give communities meaningful breaks (respite) from aircraft noise exposure.

Please take a moment to complete the survey below, which will help us better understand your awareness of the Noise Sharing Plan and gather your feedback on its key principles. This survey will be open until 8 December 2025.

1. Do you feel you have a good understanding of what the Noise Sharing Plan for Melbourne Airport’s Third Runway involves?
A Noise Sharing Plan is an approval requirement for Melbourne Airport’s Third Runway. The plan will identify strategies to offer meaningful breaks from aircraft noise during off-peak times, nights, or when specific weather conditions allow. The goal is to prevent any area from continuous noise exposure, rather than give all areas an equal share of aircraft noise.
2. Airports are governed by procedures and standards that dictate safety as a top priority and a non-negotiable principle. Maintaining access and capacity for the airport when it’s required in peak periods is non-negotiable. Outside of peak periods and when safety and weather conditions allow, the Noise Sharing Plan provides an opportunity to provide noise respite.

Below is a list of negotiable key principles that can guide the approach outside peak periods for a Noise Sharing Plan. Rank these in order of most to least important (hold each option and drag the boxes up or down to rank your choices from 1 to 5, preferred to least preferred).
Drag and drop to reorder, then tick the checkbox to confirm your order.

Busy periods are defined as 7am–11am and 4pm–10pm. In the first few years of the third runway opening, the PM busy periods can be more flexible. This can alternate across different communities at different times but generally requires a predetermined schedule for predictability and safe aircraft operations.

3. Outside of busy periods and when conditions allow, the Noise Sharing Plan can provide guidance on when communities can experience some respite from aircraft noise.

How would you prefer to see respite periods scheduled? Rank the three options provided below (hold each option and drag the boxes up or down to rank your choices from 1 to 3, preferred to least preferred).
Drag and drop to reorder, then tick the checkbox to confirm your order.

4. When traffic levels and conditions allow, we want to understand when you would want to experience respite from aircraft noise. (Please note: As the population grows and demand for flights from Melbourne Airport increases, the times when we can share noise across Melbourne will decrease.)

Select two preferred times for weekdays and two for the weekend.

Weekday
Weekend
5. What type of information would you like to see more of in the draft Noise Sharing Plan that will be released in mid-late 2026? Select all that apply

If you would like to receive updates on the Noise Sharing Plan Project, please provide your details below:

I understand that personal information I have provided will be kept on the stakeholder database for the use of Melbourne Airport and its contractors who will follow privacy guidelines (please read the privacy policy here) and I understand Melbourne Airport and/or its contractors will send correspondence to me via my preferred form of contact. Submissions may be reviewed and summarised using artificial intelligence (AI) tools with enterprise-grade data protection measures in place. These tools are used solely to assist APAM and its contractors in efficiently analysing and responding to feedback. Any personal information processed by AI tools will be handled securely and in accordance with APAM’s Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws.
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