Western Sydney International Airport opens to passengers on Sunday, October 25, giving Australia's biggest city a second major airport. The first flight, a Jetstar service to the Gold Coast, took off at 11:22 a.m. local time, a little behind its 11 a.m. schedule. The airport cost about 5.6 billion Australian dollars, or roughly US$4 billion, and it's been talked about for decades. For now, though, very few people will actually be able to fly from it.
Why Sydney Wanted a Second Airport
Sydney Kingsford Smith, the city's main airport, sits close to the center and has a nightly curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., so planes can't come and go overnight. It's also boxed in by neighborhoods and Botany Bay, which leaves little room to grow.
The new airport, officially named after the pioneering aviator Nancy-Bird Walton, sits about 31 miles west of downtown and has no curfew. It's licensed to run 24 hours a day, which means flights can land in the middle of the night, something that matters for long-haul flights arriving from Asia, Europe and North America. It's built to handle about 10 million passengers a year at first, with room to grow past 80 million, which would eventually make it bigger than the airport it's meant to relieve.
Who Flies There
At launch, the list is short:
- Jetstar, Qantas' low-cost airline, flies to Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Brisbane from day one.
- Air New Zealand starts flying to Auckland on October 26, three times a week.
- Singapore Airlines begins daily flights to Singapore on November 23, the airport's first long-haul route. Its passengers will also get the airport's first international lounge, The Rayleigh Lounge, run by dnata and opening in November.
- Vietjet plans flights to Ho Chi Minh City starting in January, and Fiji Airways to Nadi from March 19.
- Qantas itself won't arrive until March 28, with flights to Melbourne and Brisbane.
- Qatar Airways announced this week that it will fly to Doha starting December 15, 2027, the first Middle Eastern airline to sign on.
According to the aviation data firm Cirium, the airport has half a dozen or fewer scheduled flights a day for the next 12 months, reported by the South China Morning Post. That's a tiny fraction of the hundreds of daily flights at Kingsford Smith.
Sydney · New Airport
Western Sydney International Is Open
Contrail
Why So Few Flights
The timing is rough. Airlines around the world are dealing with jet fuel prices that have roughly doubled this year, and many have few spare planes to put on brand-new routes. Qantas has been cutting domestic flying rather than adding it. Moving flights to a new airport is also a gamble for an airline, since it has to bet that passengers will choose a quieter airport farther from the city over the one they already know.
That's the challenge for any new airport. Airlines go where passengers are, and passengers go where the flights are, so the first few years are usually slow.
Getting There
This is the other catch. There's no train to the airport yet. A Sydney Metro line is planned, but it isn't expected until the 2030s. For now, the options are driving, a taxi or rideshare, or buses that cost about A$25 and run to Parramatta, downtown Sydney and Kingsford Smith. A new toll-free motorway, the M12, is still being built.
Should You Use It?
If you live in Western Sydney, it could save you a long drive across the city, especially on Jetstar's domestic routes. If you're flying in from farther than New Zealand, it won't really be an option until Singapore Airlines starts on November 23, and even then, getting into the city will take longer than from Kingsford Smith until the train opens.
For most travelers, the new airport is a promise more than a choice right now. Give it a few years, more airlines and a rail line, and it could change how people fly to Sydney.
