Amid the controversy surrounding preliminary flight paths for Western Sydney’s new airport, another potential challenge is looming: turtles on the tarmac.
The land surrounding Sydney’s newest airport is prime nesting area for native turtles. This may create problems for the airport’s operations.
Turtle invasions at airports are not unprecedented. In recent years, a freshwater turtle was found wandering around Sydney Airport, which is built on Botany Bay. In 2021, a turtle strolling across a runway in Japan delayed five planes. A few years earlier, a passenger plane aborted takeoff because a 1.5m leatherback turtle was on the runway. And at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, employees carried 1,300 turtles off the tarmac in one nesting season alone.
