Western Sydney Airport: feedback panel to help design Badgerys Creek site

Readers of The Daily Telegraph have been invited to join a panel which will decide how to make Western Sydney’s new airport the best in the world.

The days of wandering lost around an airport or anxiously waiting for your bag to appear could be a thing of the past at the new Western Sydney Airport.

Readers of The Daily Telegraph are being invited to join a panel deciding on how to make the new airport the best in the world.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to help shape what will be the people’s airport,” Western Sydney Airport chief executive Simon Hickey said.

“There is no one better to guide us as we make important decisions about how the airport will work than the people who will soon be using it.”

Construction has started on the passenger terminal for the new Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek. Picture: Supplied

Readers of the new Western Sydney International Panel will be aiming to help the airport avoid the poor signage, long check-in queues, slow Wi-Fi and disorganisation that have made Stanstead in the UK and Kuwait airports the worst in the world.

Technology will play an important role in getting passengers moving sooner. “We’re aiming to make the anxious wait around the baggage carousel a thing of the past. Our baggage system will give passengers the option to track their bags via an app so they know exactly when they will arrive,” Mr Hickey said.

An artist rendition of the new Western Sydney Airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The airport will be benchmarked against the best and worst in the world. AirHelp ranks airports on the on-time performance of aircraft, service quality and food and shops.

AirHelp chief executive Tomasz Pawliszyn said the biggest factor was flight punctuality followed by “quality of service received from the airport staff, security wait times, cleanliness and a good offer for shopping and dining.”

Western Sydney Airport, with the help of The Daily Telegraph’s readers on its International Panel, will be looking to make the new airport rival Hamad International Airport, in Doha, Qatar, which passengers voted the world’s best modern five-star airport largely thanks to its excellent wayfinding for transit passengers.

Professional passenger Steve Hui, founder of iFLYflat The Points Whisperer, said the key factor to consider when designing the new airport is clear signage.

Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar has been voted one of the best in the world. Picture: Supplied

“Great airport design makes the customer feel like they know what is going on,” he said. “Airports are huge buildings and it is very easy to be disoriented, in some cases they are designed so you have no idea where you are.

“No one wants to go the wrong direction to find out they need to backtrack and run to their gate, risking missing their flight.”

He hoped the new Western Sydney Airport would incorporate some of the features of Hong Kong International Airport where everything is on one level with no steps or escalators and Tokyo where every sign shows how many metres it is to the destination.

“This information is important to give you a guide to distance, energy and likely times it takes to take that journey,” he said.

The standard to avoid was set by Kuala International Airport in Malaysia where the signage was so bad “I had no idea if I was going the right way except to hope for the best.”

Dennis Bunnik, chairman of the Council of Australian Tour Operators, said: “When it comes to airport design beauty is important but never at the expense of practicality and ease of use.

“Good signage, practical passenger flows that promote fast and efficient movement and good facilities win out over beauty every time – unfortunately the designers of Madrid Airport took the complete opposite approach.”

His top tips for the designers of the new airport in Western Sydney included making it the “easiest terminal to use in Australia – both from airline and passenger perspectives” and “include a rail-link from Sydney Central Station – don’t be a Melbourne!”

To join the Western Sydney International Panel to help design the new airport, click here.

Originally published as Western Sydney Airport: feedback panel to help design Badgerys Creek site