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All going well, flight JQ362 will depart Western Sydney International Airport bound for the Gold Coast at 11am. In the afternoon, JQ375 will land from Melbourne before it turns around and heads back south.
It is not the busiest schedule in the world, but the first commercial flights from the airport named after Nancy-Bird Walton mark a milestone worth celebrating. With the first passengers loading their bags and collecting their boarding passes, Australia gets its first new major airport in half a century and an eight-decade dream for Sydney will be realised.
The opening on Sunday means for first time an Australian capital city will have two competing commercial airports, and Sydney joins major centres such as London, New York and Paris in offering choice not only to passengers but to airlines chasing a growing market.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers is among those expecting big things, telling The Sun-Herald there had been much interest from around the world, and he expected it to bring economic benefits to western Sydney and beyond – and enough competition to put downward pressure on ticket prices.
“It can only be a good thing for competition and for the economy more broadly,” he told senior economics correspondent Shane Wright.
It may not be an overnight success, of course. Aviation reporter Chris Zappone explains that while the 24-hour airport is expected to benefit from Kingsford Smith’s limits on capacity, growth may be held back by some passengers’ unwillingness to try the new hub some 50 kilometres away from Sydney’s CBD. It is also opening as airlines’ costs spiral, driven largely by soaring fuel prices due to the war in the Middle East, and the kind of global uncertainty that makes market predictions difficult.
The airport’s construction has not been without controversy or twists and turns. Even as the planes take off and land on Sunday – and head further afield with the first international flights on Monday – there remains no metro for passengers to easily connect to the city’s rail network.
The Golden Arches will not be there on day one, but as flights and passenger numbers increase, it is to be hoped the airport will achieve the critical mass to justify the investment.
The airport has been designed with expansion in mind. Western Sydney Airport chief executive Simon Hickey told transport and infrastructure editor Matt O’Sullivan that, one day, it would become the city’s largest airport. “We have not built a tin shed and a runway next to that,” he says. “We’ve built a beautiful airport that’s going to thrive into the future.”
When the planes soar on Sunday, it is a reason for Sydney to get excited. It will provide one more connection with the wider world, a gateway to a growing population and an eye-catching undulating roof to boot . With the metro extension and Powerhouse Parramatta opening on the horizon, the airport’s arrival should be another reason for Sydney to look west with pride and optimism.
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