Preferred Runway Alignment

In 2021, a Preliminary Aeronautical Assessment report identified two runway alignment options:

• Hawea Valley-Lake Dunstan (Runway 01/19)
• Lindis Valley-Lake Dunstan alignment (Runway 04/22).

Our experts concluded that both runway alignment options performed relatively equally against most requirements. However, runway 04/22 is likely to have lesser noise impacts, and performed better on a number of efficiency measures.

Benefits of this alignment are:

• greatest flexibility for aircraft types and operating parameters, an important factor for long-term resilience, especially with unknown performance capabilities of next generation aircraft,
• enhanced reliability for low visibility conditions due to lower decision heights,
• greater payload capacity than runway 01/19,
• reduced noise impacts for communities in the region.

This does not mean a decision has been made to proceed with runway 04/22. It means that based on the information we’ve seen to date, runway 04/22 would be the preferred alignment.