Perth airspace review recommendations

A review of the airspace surrounding Perth airport has made 15 recommendations to address a range of issues.

CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation conducted the review of airspace within 50 nautical miles of Perth aerodrome.

This included operations at Jandakot, Pearce and 13 other smaller aerodromes.

The airspace review identified 36 key issues which were raised by airspace users during interviews and forums.

Issues range from the rapid growth of fly-in and fly-out mining operations, significant airspace capacity limitations, restricted access to Perth controlled airspace, difficulties in delivering instrument flight rules training, radar surveillance coverage at Jandakot not being reliable to the surface, some visual flight rules reporting points being hard to identify and the class C steps causing issues for certain aircraft types.

The review's report notes a Western Australian air traffic task force has been set up to consider ways for CASA and Airservices A ustralia to enhance the safety and efficiency of West Australian airspace to meet current and future demands.

Airservices is also conducting a study into the issues affecting Perth airspace capacity.

Recommendations in the report include flying school representatives meeting with Airservices to look at options for increasing access to controlled airspace, the RAAF and Navy examining changes to restricted airspace, CASA delivering education sessions to flying schools and private pilots on procedures and Airservices reviewing and updating visual flight rules approach and reporting points.

Read more about the Perth airspace review.