Emirates faces $1.1m fine for breaching Sydney airport curfew

Thursday, 9 February 2012 4:14 PM

Dubai’s Emirates Airline is facing a fine of $1.1m after one its aircraft allegedly departed from Sydney after the airport’s 11pm curfew.

Sydney Airport regulations stipulate flights are not allowed to land or take off between the hours of 11pm and 6am. According to reports in Australia, government officials are investigating claims an Emirates flight took off from the airport on Jan 8 at 11:15pm, despite claims it was refused permission to do so from air traffic control officials.

“Emirates flight EK413 from Sydney to Dubai on 8th January was delayed due to fuel delivery issues caused by a thunderstorm that evening,” an Emirates spokesperson confirmed in a statement. “A decision was made to continue with operation of the flight to limit the inconvenience to passengers.”

“Only on rare occasions such as this does the airline seek dispensations, and when doing so follows the normal process. We are currently in discussions with the relevant authorities regarding aspects of the curfew regulations and, while these talks are ongoing, we are not in a position to comment further,” the statement added.

If the claims are upheld by Australian authorities, the Dubai carrier faces a fine of around $1.1m. “[Sydney Airport] should have shouldered Emirates cost for a delayed flight if that was the case - the delayed fuel supply is an airport issue, it’s not Emirates fault at all,” said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research.

“It’s clear that consent must have been given or the flight would not have taken off - the cost of a delayed flight, putting up passengers for the night and disrupting flight crew scheduling as well as misplaced airplanes could well have cost Emirates countless hundreds of thousands of dollars… Whether they can escape the fine is up for debate but is does seem odd that the Australian authorities allowed the flight at all and are now seeking damages for it.”

The curfew at Sydney was brought into force in 1995 after complaints from local residents. However, it has been the cause of much debate among the Australian travel industry and this latest incident related to Emirates has reignited calls for it to be scrapped.

The Tourism Industry Council New South Wales described the curfew as “absurd” and called for it to be more flexible. “That flights are not given dispensation to depart after 11pm after many hours of weather related delays sends a message to the world that Sydney and NSW are not serious about attracting international tourists,” the council's general manager Andrew Jefferies told the Herald Sun newspaper.

"It is time that the Federal Government reviewed the curfew legislation and gave serious consideration to relaxing some of these constraints in order to provide Sydney Airport with greater operational flexibility so that inbound tourists continue to have a positive experience of Sydney, NSW and Australia,” he added.

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Posted by: Warren Teed Monday, 13 February 2012 8:39 AM[UAE] - Korea

Hi Sam, Maybe this is the Aussies equivalent of RTA's Salik, or Empower/EMCOOL doubling their profits in an arbitrary way, or just the developers service charges surcharge!. On a serious note, a plane can take off without permission. It happened before in Spain, USA and other countries (maybe pilote distracted, misunderstanding or simply pilote rushing before airport is closed). It does not mean that Emirates pilotes are bad or that Aussies are making a big thing out of nothing. Any how these guys have every thing recorded both in Australia and in the plane black box and they both know the truth.

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Posted by: Telcoguy Sunday, 12 February 2012 1:10 PM[UAE] - UAE

@sam, according to Australian media emirates flight took off without ground control permission. A fact that is described as "surprising" in the same article.
It is common sense that your contributions would be more helpful if you could bother to research a little bit better before posting.
Cheers

Posted by: Ali Monday, 13 February 2012 10:57 AM[UAE] - Qatar

Maybe he will say that Australian media is biased and jealous of Emirates so they are reporting wrong things as fact?

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Posted by: charles Sunday, 12 February 2012 8:16 AM[UAE] - uae

I dont know what is worse:

Letting Sam from Canada comment on most articles
or
Saj Ahmed "chief analyst at StrategicAero Research" being rolled out by AB to comment on anything to do with aviation.

Either way, we all lose.

Posted by: Sam Sunday, 12 February 2012 12:40 PM[UAE] - Canada

Feel free to comment yourself - if you do have anything really honest and interesting to say. AB would also be glad, I am sure.

In any case, the Aussies can't really believe that anyone buys this story about an Aircraft taking off without permission. For the poor souls who do, they may want to do some reading up on international aviation protocols.

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Posted by: procan Saturday, 11 February 2012 10:54 AM[UAE] - canada

Sam now your expert on Australian law.

Posted by: Sam Sunday, 12 February 2012 8:17 AM[UAE] - Canada

Its common sense mate ..if u have know anything about flying u should know that ALL aircraft movements are controlled and directed by Ground Control. To say that Emirates took off even though it "was refused permission to do so from air traffic control officials" is but derisory.

Nothing to do with Australian Law mate! I would NEVER waste my time being an "expert on Australian law". More important things to learn I assure you...

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Posted by: Sam Friday, 10 February 2012 10:45 AM[UAE] - Canada

No Aircraft can depart if it is "refused permission to do so from air traffic control officials". Clearly, this is Sydney Airport trying to make a quick buck off Emirates...

I acknowledge times are hard, the economy is a mess - so I am sure to see more of these "daylight robbery" attempts in the future.

Good luck Emirates!

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