Western Sydney International Airport will open its doors with the IATA winter season beginning at the end of October. For now, four airlines have confirmed the launch of flights from what will become the Australian metropolis's second airport.
However, this is a minimal programme for an infrastructure that is to support Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport, Australia's main air gateway with over 42.5 million passengers in 2025 and the presence of 52 airlines.
Close to saturation, Kingsford Smith will thus be supported by the new airport at Badgerys Creek, a suburb located 40 km west of the metropolis's historic heart and business district. The site will be developed in phases.
Phase 1 of the Western Sydney International Airport (WSI) will open at the end of October. Open 24 hours a day, the new airport will be capable, with its single runway, of handling traffic of up to 10 million passengers. By 2050, however, traffic at the new airport is expected to exceed 35 million travellers.
In the meantime, the beginnings of Western Sydney International will be rather modest. The first airline to have announced its arrival at the new airport, Singapore Airlines will inaugurate a daily flight at the end of November. The first international airline to land and take off from WSI will nevertheless be Air New Zealand with four weekly frequencies to Auckland.
Ten days ago, the Qantas Group finally revealed its future network from the new hub. Its low-cost subsidiary Jetstar will offer two daily flights to Melbourne, four weekly flights to the Gold Coast, where a number of Queensland resorts are concentrated, as well as three weekly flights to Brisbane, the country's third-largest city. Then, for the summer 2027 season, Qantas will offer four weekly flights to Melbourne and Brisbane. This amounts to, ultimately, 4 to 5 daily flights. Nothing too extravagant!
