Australia's biggest airport project in decades opens with few flights scheduled

Sydney's A$5.6 billion (US$3.9 billion) second airport will take its first passengers on Oct. 25 with half a dozen or fewer scheduled flights a day for the next 12 months, Bloomberg reported, citing aviation data company Cirium. Western Sydney International, about 50 kilometers inland from the city center, will open with a Jetstar flight to the Gold Coast. The low-cost carrier owned by Qantas Airways is the airport's main customer.Qantas itself plans little more than one domestic flight a day on average from March 2027, according to Cirium data running through September 2027. Virgin Australia, the country's second largest airline, has no flights scheduled."We are looking closely at the Western Sydney opportunity and assessing whether it would fit into a network and schedule that best serves the needs of our customers," Virgin Australia said in a statement.Qantas pointed to comments by CEO Vanessa Hudson in June, when she called Western Sydney "such an important market," particularly for Jetstar. "We expect demand will grow, and when we see that, we'll put more frequency in," she said at the time.Air New Zealand will start flying to Auckland on Oct. 26, followed by daily Singapore Airlines flights from Nov. 23, Vietjet flights to Ho Chi Minh City from January 2027 and three weekly Fiji Airways flights to Nadi from March 19, 2027, according to Aviation A2Z.Vietjet plans two flights a week at first, rising to three from March 2027, the airline says on its website.Western Sydney International CEO Simon Hickey told Bloomberg that more airlines will come in time and that talks are under way with several carriers.He also needs local residents to give the airport a chance, which would help persuade other carriers there is demand to capture. "It's use it or lose it," he said.The airport, Australia's biggest aviation infrastructure development in decades, opens as airlines worldwide endure their toughest period since the Covid-19 pandemic, warning of rising fuel costs and fares as the war in Iran drags on.Many, Qantas included, are cutting domestic capacity rather than adding flights, and airlines are struggling to get new jets, leaving few spare aircraft for new airports where demand is unproven.Doubts over demandA planned rail link to the airport will not open until 2027 at the earliest, while a shuttle bus to central Sydney costs A$55 (US$38) and takes about an hour. Kingsford Smith, Sydney's main airport and Australia's primary gateway, is 20 minutes from the central business district by taxi or train."The main airport is much more convenient to almost all travelers," said David Levinson, a professor of transport at the University of Sydney, according to Bloomberg. He described Western Sydney International’s passenger forecasts as "a bit optimistic."New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said in June that the metro line could be delayed until 2028, ABC News reported. Until it opens, a free bus will run every 30 minutes between the airport and St Marys railway station, according to Aviation A2Z.Named for pioneering aviator Nancy Bird Walton, the airport expects 8.4 million passengers a year by the end of the decade and almost 20 million by 2045, according to its master plan. Kingsford Smith handled more than 42.5 million passengers in 2025, according to its operator, Sydney Airport.By 2030, half of Sydney's 6.1 million people will live in the city's west, the plan says. Some 40% of Greater Western Sydney's population was born overseas, which should generate demand for flights to countries such as India, China and Vietnam, it adds.The airport sits on old farmland at Badgerys Creek. The government chose the site in 2014, ending a debate over a second Sydney airport dating back to 1946. Construction started in 2018, and cargo flights began in July.Unlike Kingsford Smith, where most flights are barred between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., the new airport has no overnight curfew, allowing international airlines to schedule departures that connect with flights at their own hubs. The federal government has set Nov. 1 as the intended date for night flights to begin.The site is planned for a nominal long-term capacity of 82 million passengers a year by 2063, according to the airport, which aims to eventually become Sydney's main air-travel hub.Stephen Beckett, CEO of industry group Airlines for Australia and New Zealand, said it takes time for a new airport to establish itself, Bloomberg reported. "Some airlines will sit back and make their own commercial assessments based on passenger demand," he said.Levinson also compared the new airport with Mirabel airport outside Montreal, which opened in 1975 in time for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, handled its last commercial passenger flight in 2004 and now operates chiefly as a freight hub. Western Sydney International is trying to serve a market that does not yet exist, and its opening is "early, given actual demand," he said.