Australia has waited around fifty years for a major new international airport, and on Monday morning it finally received its first overseas guests. An Air New Zealand jet flying as NZ165 out of Auckland landed at Western Sydney International at 7:28 a.m. local time, spent roughly 90 minutes on the ground and left again for New Zealand as NZ166.
The arrival capped an opening weekend that began on Sunday, when Jetstar flew the very first passenger service, a domestic hop to the Gold Coast. The airport sits at Badgerys Creek near Penrith on Sydney’s western fringe and carries the name of Nancy-Bird Walton, the first Australian woman to fly as a commercial pilot. Work on the site started in 2014, and freight flights have been running since July.
Its biggest selling point is the clock. Unlike Kingsford Smith on Botany Bay, which has to stay quiet overnight, the new airport has no curfew, giving airlines far more freedom over schedules. Many people living nearby fought that decision, fearing aircraft noise at all hours. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed a milestone generations in the waiting, while chief executive Simon Hickey put it in the same league as the Harbour Bridge.
Inside, the terminal tries to do away with some familiar annoyances. Domestic and international flights share one building, every one of its 40 self-service kiosks and 34 baggage counters works for every carrier, and zones such as security or baggage reclaim can switch between domestic and international use as demand shifts. The first passengers off the Auckland flight were through border checks and holding their bags in a little over 17 minutes, helped by fully digital arrival declarations.
Capacity starts at 10 million travellers a year, and could one day pass 80 million. The New Zealand carrier plans three return trips each week, Singapore Airlines arrives on November 23, and Vietjet, Fiji Airways and Qantas are due to join next year.
