Allowing aircraft to land closer together could be a quick fix for Brisbane Airport's delays. LANDING aircraft closer together could help ease congestion at Brisbane Airport until a parallel runway is built. Queensland-based commercial pilot Helen Trenerry proposed the "quick fix" after becoming frustrated with delays and constantly being placed into holding patterns on approach to Brisbane. While some overseas airports operate almost exclusively on auto-landings and allow aircraft to touch down as little as two nautical miles apart, in Brisbane the minimum gap is three miles and sources say that is regularly pushed out to 15 miles. Ms Trenerry said Australia had the "lowest aircraft movement rate" of anywhere in the world, partly due to staffing at air traffic control towers. "On the days when we had ex-Tropical Cyclone Oswald doing its worst, you expect go-arounds and diversions," Ms Trenerry said. The rest of the time ... we don't need those big long gaps between aeroplanes. She said the management of airspace was "always changing" and now aircraft had been directed to lower their speed on approach to Brisbane Airport, which would slow things down even more. "It makes the air traffic controller's job easier because they'll have us going at slower speeds," Ms Trenerry said. Another aviation expert, who did not want to be named, said improved technology would allow aircraft to land closer together even in unfavourable conditions. Airports including Chicago, New York and Heathrow in London utilised automatic landing equipment to maximise runway capacity, he said. Thomas Woodward, from Qantas, agreed technological upgrades would allow more flights to land in low visibility. "But this wouldn't be a silver bullet for congestion given that Brisbane doesn't experience fog as often as airports like Melbourne or Canberra," Mr Woodward said. As with all airport technology upgrades, we'd potentially be supportive if a strong proposal was put on the table. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority sets minimum separation standards to keep aircraft at safe distances from each other, which are in line with international practice, spokesman Peter Gibson said. Under current standards, heavy aircraft can land as close together as two nautical miles in good conditions. Airservices Australia refused to say what proportion of flights into Brisbane were meeting this standard. CASA is currently implementing a satellite-based, precision landing system at Sydney Airport, with a view to it being rolled out to other airports in coming years. However a spokesman said it was unlikely to make a significant improvement to capacity on Brisbane Airport. "It's a safer more efficient system, but it's not aimed at increasing capacity," he said.