Two years to take-off: Inside Sydney’s new international airport terminal

Walking into the giant terminal for Sydney’s new airport, you are struck by the spaciousness of the ground-floor check-in area, where natural light streams through huge windows.

Yet the wave-like ceiling – arguably the terminal’s most striking architectural feature, inspired by the nearby Blue Mountains – keeps you wanting to look skywards.

In just two years, passengers are set to start filing through the massive new terminal at Western Sydney International Airport, jetting off for Christmas holidays during the busiest time of the year for air travel.

A striking ceiling and electronic gates will greet passengers.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Twelve weeks after the first plane touched down on the airport’s runway, the federal government-owned operator is less than four months from receiving the keys to the terminal from the contractor Multiplex.

Western Sydney Airport chief executive Simon Hickey says the new aviation hub, formally named after pioneering Australian aviator Nancy Bird Walton, is close to moving from a long construction phase to establishing operations.

“We’re getting very close to the pointy end. We test all of the airport from the working point of view,” he explains.

As part of turning it into a fully fledged international and domestic airport, the operator will seek interest over the next year from retailers keen to set up duty-free and foreign exchange outlets, shops, restaurants and bars.

Flagging the progress made in a matter of months, large signage spelling out the curfew-free airport’s name has been fitted onto the terminal’s roof, clearly visible to passengers from aircraft lined up at gates.

The terminal looks largely like what passengers will see when they walk under the “great Australian verandah” at the entrance and into the expansive check-in area.

On the ground floor, passengers will be greeted by biometric check-in kiosks and bag-drop equipment. Unusually, the check-in will be used for both international and domestic passengers.

“This is about reducing wait time, reducing queue, making it easy as you go through this area and this terminal,” Hickey says, adding that it is aimed at making the terminal experience “simple and intuitive”.

After taking escalators, stairs or lifts to the first floor, passengers will walk into the security screening area, where domestic and international travellers part.

Once through, they will enter the main retail and waiting area. Airport lounges will be on a mezzanine level above. Sandstone panels adorn walls throughout the new Multiplex-built terminal.

“It’s a really welcoming space. It’s generous. People will feel that this is not a tin shed,” Hickey says. “It’s very light and airy.”

Workers install tables on the first floor where shops, restaurants and bars will be located.Credit: Wolter Peeters

From the terminal, passengers will get expansive views of the runway, rolling countryside and the Blue Mountains. In the baggage halls, a sign above the exit reads “Welcome to Sydney”, a sign that this airport is for the whole city.

Unlike many other airports, cars can’t drop people off directly in front of the entrance. Public transport takes priority, and a bus loop allows passengers to be dropped off and picked up closer to the terminal. A new metro train station is about 150 metres away. There are also covered walkways and landscaped areas for people to gather away from traffic.

“In a modern airport terminal, you can’t have the traffic pulling up right in front of the terminal for good reason,” Hickey says. “It’s a lot safer, but it gives us the capability of shaping this front area and creating a space that people will find pleasing.”

“Welcome to Sydney”: Western Sydney Airport chief executive Simon Hickey.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Outside on the aircraft apron, aero-bridges are installed, awaiting their first passenger planes at Australia’s first new major airport since the opening of Melbourne’s Tullamarine in 1970.

On the opposite side of the runway is a tank farm for jet fuel storage and the airport fire station site. Near the runway’s southern end, the cargo hub takes shape as large warehouses rise from bare earth.

Giant “X” signs are still plastered along the 3.7-kilometre runway, signalling to pilots they can’t yet land there.

Hickey, a former head of Qantas’ international operations, says scores of challenges have faced workers ranging from COVID lockdowns to floods and plagues of locusts and mice during years of construction. “You’re constantly responding to what’s in front of you,” he says.

Singapore Airlines is the first international carrier to confirm flights to the new airport when it opens in 2026. Negotiations continue with Virgin Australia after Qantas and budget offshoot Jetstar committed last year to have 15 domestic aircraft based at Nancy Bird Walton within a year of its opening, flying to destinations such as Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

“We’re currently engaged with dozens of airlines. That doesn’t mean they will all be coming on day one. But it does mean they’re interested in coming here in the early years of our operation,” Hickey says.

“We will have the capacity to grow aggressively here in comparison to other airports. The facilities are built for 10 million annual passengers – about the size of Adelaide Airport.”

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