Easing airport curfew can reap $300 million - The Australian

Stunning ... sunrise over Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport control tower / Pic: John Grainger Source: The Daily Telegraph

RELAXING Sydney Airport's curfew by just two hours in the evening could boost the state's economy by almost $300 million.

An analysis of overnight flights in and out of Melbourne Airport - which does not have a curfew - shows almost 70 per cent of all departures and arrivals take place between 11pm and 1am.

A breakdown of arrivals over the past week found 64 scheduled passenger flights between 11pm and 1am while just 14 flights were scheduled over the next five hours.

Departures showed a similar pattern with 60 flights scheduled between 11pm and 1am, with another 30 flights taking off during the rest of the early morning hours.

Melbourne Airport's curfew-free status allowed it to handle an extra two million passengers a year - who added $590 million to the Victorian economy.

According to the federal government's latest international visitor survey, each tourist spends almost $2000 on a trip to Sydney, slightly less than in Melbourne, meaning if Sydney could capture a similar number of flights between 11pm and 1am the state's economy would receive a $300 million boost.

Premier Barry O'Farrell last week called on the federal government to ease restrictions on flights operating during the curfew's shoulder periods of 11pm to midnight and 5am to 6am.

Under Mr O'Farrell's plan, the curfew restrictions would be eased back to 1995 levels, which allowed for 14 flights per week during the evening shoulder and up to 35 per week in the early morning period.

The plan was swiftly shot down by federal Transport Minister Anthony Albanese, whose electorate of Grayndler is underneath the airport's flight path.

Mr Albanese has ruled out changes to the movement cap or the curfew at Kingsford-Smith and is awaiting the findings of a scoping study into the feasibility of building a new facility at Wilton on Sydney's southwest fringe.

Strategic Aviation Solutions analyst Neil Hansford said few people wanted to fly in the middle of the night and easing the curfew until 1am would deliver huge benefits. "If it's based on science then you would ease the curfew - as long it was restricted to planes taking off on the long runway over Botany Bay and restricted to the quietest aircraft," he said.

"There's an argument it's difficult to manage flights if you're only operating one runway, but as Melbourne shows there are not many flights and it is possible."