While we see airports open new terminals pretty frequently, it’s not often we see a new international airport open altogether. After all, airports require a lot of vacant land, and that can be tough to find near large popular centers.
Along those lines, Sydney will be getting a second major airport late next year, which is the country’s first new major airport in roughly 50 years. In this post, I want to take a closer look at this project, especially as more renderings of the interior have just been unveiled.
In this post:
What is the new Western Sydney Airport?
Western Sydney Airport (WSI) is expected to open in late 2026, providing an overdue alternative to Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport (SYD). Here are some of the key things to be aware of about the new airport, which is coming at a cost of $5.3 billion AUD:
- The airport will be located 27 miles (44 kilometers) from the Sydney CBD, within the suburbs of Luddenham and Badgerys Creek, with a rail connection to Sydney
- The airport will have a runway of over 12,000 feet, so it’ll be able to accommodate any commercial aircraft in service, including the Airbus A380
- The airport won’t have a curfew, so operations will be possible 24/7, unlike at Sydney’s existing airport, which has a curfew from 11PM until 6AM
- The airport will initially have a single terminal and a single runway with the capacity to handle 10 million passengers per year, but there are plans for it to eventually be expanded to the point that it could have four terminals and two runways, accommodating up to 82 million passengers annually
- The idea behind the airport is that Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport is nearing capacity, and there’s also a population of a few million people west of Sydney, so this would be a convenient airport for them
Fun fact — plans for this airport were first conceived in 1986, so the airport should finally open 40 years after the federal government announced this plan. Yow.
Even though the airport is only opening late next year, the terminal has already been completed, and the first pictures of the terminal have just been released, and it looks beautiful. The building design was conceived by Cox Architecture and Zaha Hadid Architects, while the design and delivery were carried out by Woods Bagot.
I’ve gotta say, that looks like a beautiful airport terminal!
Which airlines will fly to Western Sydney Airport?
With Western Sydney Airport potentially a little over a year from opening, which airlines plan to fly there? Qantas and Jetstar have already committed to offering domestic flights from the airport. The plan is for Qantas to base five jets there, and for low cost subsidiary Jetstar to base 10 jets there. I imagine Virgin Australia will fly to the airport as well, but just hasn’t made a final decision yet.
But what about international flights? So far, we know that Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand both plan to fly to the airport, from their respective hubs. Presumably these flights will complement the significant existing service that both carriers have to Sydney’s current airport.
Exact schedule details, including frequencies, aircraft types, and schedules, remain to be seen. We should learn more by early 2026 at the latest, around the time that you’d think bookings would be made available.
I imagine we’ll see a good number of international airlines operate flights to Western Sydney Airport, though there will definitely be some tradeoffs here. A few thoughts:
- There’s efficiency to operating from a single airport in terms of staffing, irregular operations, connectivity, and more, so I imagine some airlines will avoid splitting operations between the two airports
- I imagine the lack of a curfew will be very appealing to some Gulf carriers, given that they currently operate some flights that push up against the curfew in Sydney
- With Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport expected to be at capacity in several years, at some point airlines won’t have a choice but to fly to Western Sydney Airport
Bottom line
We’re not that far off from Western Sydney Airport opening, and it should bring some much needed airport competition to the region. The airport will open in late 2026, initially handling up to 10 million passengers per year. However, the airport has the potential to get massive over the years, with the goal of eventually serving up to 82 million passengers annually.
When it comes to airlines, we know that Qantas and Jetstar plan to fly to the airport, and we also now know that Singapore Airlines Air New Zealand plan to be the first international airlines at the airport. I’m curious to see what other airlines announce similar plans in the near future.
What do you make of Western Sydney Airport, and how popular do you think it’ll be with foreign carriers?
WSI will be fantastic for connections. Also, for the millions of people who live in Western Sydney. It was quicker to drive to Canberra than fly from Sydney if you lived in Western Sydney. Not everyone flying into Sydney is going to be staying in the CBD.
Virgin flying to WSI is speculation at this stage, but I would predict if VA does enter WSI, they'll be treating WSI as a spoke/regional airport than a hub, largely with token flights to BNE/MEL and focusing primarily on O&D/VFR.
I would not be surprised if Bain has also looked at VA not entering WSI at all and bidding for any slots vacated by Jetstar at SYD to go their 'own path' and 'fight their own battles'
@skyhigh has nailed it. Even the planned rail 'link' would mean a commute of around 90 minutes to the Sydney CBD, and thats a best case scenario. Will there be a link to SYD for transitting passengers? I bet the boffins in Transport haven't thought of that. And would the trains run 24/7 through the night? As if!! 60-90 minutes between trains would be my bet. This is the way Sydney Transport has operated forever,...
@skyhigh has nailed it. Even the planned rail 'link' would mean a commute of around 90 minutes to the Sydney CBD, and thats a best case scenario. Will there be a link to SYD for transitting passengers? I bet the boffins in Transport haven't thought of that. And would the trains run 24/7 through the night? As if!! 60-90 minutes between trains would be my bet. This is the way Sydney Transport has operated forever, and nothing will change.
A taxi fare from WSI to even the Sydney suburbs would run into hundreds of dollars most times, so that option in out.
From interstate a transfer from SYD to WSI to connect with an international flight would be very unappealling timewise. The current time at SYD to transfer from T2/T3 to T1 (international) is bad enough.
I will redouble my efforts to do a domestic to international transfer at MEL, which is conveniently all in the one terminal, bypassing Sydney entirely.
I'm a life time Gold QANTAS Frequent Flyer. I would have flown a significant majority of those flights in/out of WSI. Not everyone wants to go into the CBD. Connections? I'd avoid Kingsford Smith at additional cost, like how I avoid LAX flying into the USA.
To say it will have a train to the city is a little deceiving. Firstly the train link won't be completed until about a year after WSI opens They are currently building a 15 minute metro from WSI to St Mary's, a train station in the outer suburbs of Sydney. There passengers can connect to a 55min suburban train to central. There will not be a dedicated direct line direct from the airport to the...
To say it will have a train to the city is a little deceiving. Firstly the train link won't be completed until about a year after WSI opens They are currently building a 15 minute metro from WSI to St Mary's, a train station in the outer suburbs of Sydney. There passengers can connect to a 55min suburban train to central. There will not be a dedicated direct line direct from the airport to the city.
SYD (Kingsford Smith), will remain the most desirable airport for airlines due to it's proximity to the city. Airlines with multiple daily flights such as Singapore and the ME3 might add an extra flight at WSI but otherwise I mostly see it attracting budget airlines.
any predictions on what DL/UA/AA will do? Stay at Sydney or move to WSI?
Sydney gets a NRT.
I can wait to see the new Western Sydney International airport to open. It looks so cool and amazing to see.
I hope Fiji Airways flies to the new airport.
I fly to SYD from SFO a lot and I hope United never uses WSI. Why? It's just TOO FAR. The NSW government has to get the train thing correct otherwise why even bother. At minimum, it needs frequent nonstop service from WSI to Central in order for WSI to make it work. Drive to CBD? Forget that! Sydney traffic is absolutely terrible and taxi or Uber fares would be astronomical.
Hooray to no idiotic curfews.
This is the way. As aged city-convenient airports originally built for the capacity and aircraft of the distant past reach the breaking point, this is the only way to solve the problem. From both airline operations/scheduling and neighbor impact perspectives, and as much as many travelers might begrudge the longer travel time to the new airport, the better scheduling and more consistent and reliable operations from new airports helps their travel go smoother too.
While I don't think this is strictly official, it's generally understood that SQ want to get into WSY so that they can offer an overnight to SIN arriving in the early morning as they do from other Australian airports but can't do from SYD due to the curfew. I believe Executive Traveller carried a quote from an SQ source basically implying this with comments about how WSY's 24/7 ops opened up new scheduling opportunities.
Agree with this assessment. Could realistically see other Asian carriers that have midnight departures from MEL also take the same approach (eg MH, CX, some of the LCCs like Air Asia, Scoot).
Could potentially also see some daytime departures to international leisure destinations popular with western Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Southern Highlands residents - Bali, Nadi, Auckland spring to mind.
Very excited about this! But I do hope the airport metro isn’t $17 like the one to SYD is.
My understanding is it won't be as the WSY metro stop is supposed to be publicly owned unlike the privately owned stops at SYD that account for the excessive access use fee on top of the rail fare.
Does anyone know how long the train will take from CBD? I understand it implies a transfer if originating at Central. Also a taxi would be expensive. Seems to be that the new airport is targeted more towards the population growth in Western Sydney, perhaps?
For an international pax, getting into SYD, and transferring into the CBD in 15' by train (or similar time by taxi), is hard to beat.
Just a clarification on something. Woods Bagot, an architectural firm, delivered and oversaw final designs working with Multiplex (a building company) who constructed the airport.