rev, I lived under the flight path for many years, and still experience it when visiting the parental unit. We were close enough that in the sixties and seventies when a plane came overhead, all conversation stopped. That is not so today.
Aircraft noise standards have improved to the point where measurable noise levels are a fraction of what they were. If you don't like present noise levels, then the sixties with the early B727 and DC09 aircraft would have sent you off the planet.
Here are some facts:
http://www.bne.com.au/sites/all/custom/ ... mpacts.pdf
The height issue, however, does have an impact eventually as Adelaide grows. When it gets to about three times its present population, those height restrictions due to the airport will bite. That ties in with the airport's planning for a threefold increase in its own capacity. After that, who knows. Probably everyone here will be dead by then. However, the point then is that when that happens, we don't know what technology will be available to connect to an airport, or maybe it will be a maglev train to Melbourne from whence we will fly, or maybe it will be a tunnel to Tailem Bend. Who knows?
The distance issue is important because if we want tourists and businesses, we need to make things easier for them to come to Adelaide, not harder. Maybe other cities have airports further away, (Sydney doesn't), but then again, more people are wanting to go to some of those cities.
However, underlying all of that is that if we want to spend $5-7Bn on a new airport, then that money is going to come out of our pockets in some way. Either more cost when we fly, higher product costs passed on by companies who fly people and products in, more taxes, etc etc. There is no magic pudding. If the government pays for it direct, it will come out of our pockets, and if it is done by the private sector, again, it will come out of our pockets eventually, unless you believe that either of those will do it for free somehow. If you believe that, I have a bridge in Sydney to sell you, dirt cheap. LOL.
Divide $5-7Bn by the number of taxpayers in Adelaide, and you get something like $10k per taxpayer. And then when you tell half those taxpayers that, 'oh by the way, since you live south of the CBD you will now have to travel to Two Wells to catch a plane'. All I say is, good luck with that.
If that much money was available to spend on infrastructure, then I would vote for:
1). A metro
2). Improved cross metro area roads
3). A compact inner city tram system connected to the metro and those improved cross metro roads with carparks at the termini to take people to the CBD
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50) Purchase of land under the flight path of the airport, move people out, move business in to reduce noise impact.
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5000). Relocate the airport.
Mind you, since we don't have the money, and scream blue bloody murder when anyone suggests we might pay more tax, all of the above is a pipe dream.