Australia’s airports: Sydney west’s project should drive own economy

The federal government has listed the tasks it expects of the future Western Sydney Airport, on which work starts next year.

Federal Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher and NSW Western Sydney Minister Stuart Ayres at the site of the future Western Sydney Airport. Picture: Richard Dobson

The first incarnation of the Western Sydney Airport, for which pre-construction work starts within months, will be like the new Canberra Airport — in size and modern interior.

It will carry domestic passengers, looking after the more than 2 million who live in western Sydney. It will have three to five million passengers a year, building to 10 million. It may be a base for Jetstar.

It will also take international passengers, with demand expected for slots from Chinese airlines in particular. It will be Australia’s best in terms of design, with a technologically savvy terminal building.

These are the pronouncements of an enthusiastic federal Urban Infrastructure Minister, Paul Fletcher, in charge of the airport, as he maps what the airport at Badgerys Creek will look like in 2026, when it is planned to be running.

Fletcher has promised “a terminal and an airport that western Sydney can be proud of”. Surrounding it will be opportunities for industry and a business park, and the airport can drive its own economy, as many other airports do. The project will begin with $5.3 billion from the federal government, its initial owner.

Fletcher says the need for the airport is underpinned by the fact that “one of the airline chief executives said to me, ‘I have customers who are paying $69 to get from Sydney to Melbourne but they are paying 200 bucks to get to the airport by cab.’”

But the plans for the airport are much greater than serving the local population. Initially, in 2026 when it opens, the airport will have only one runway. But the minister points out that Gatwick Airport in London — which takes about as many passengers as Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport (more than 40 million a year) — has only one runway. There is also provision for a second parallel runway in time.

“In 2026 when the airport opens, it will have a 3700-metre runway that’s big enough for an A380 [two-level Airbus] or the largest civil aircraft. It will have a terminal with capacity for 10 million people [a year],” Fletcher says.

“We expect the airport will start with about three to five million passengers a year, it will have capacity for 10 million. We expect we will get to those numbers by the early 2030s,’’ the minister says. “In terms of the design standards, we want it to be a terminal and an airport that western Sydney can be proud of, so we think the design standards would be along the lines of Adelaide or, say, Canberra — two recently-opened high-quality airports.

“There are multiple drivers [for the airport] but the most obvious one is that Sydney Airport is heading towards capacity,’’ Fletcher says. “The joint study into aviation needs, which did its report in 2012 to the previous government … said no more slots at Kingsford Smith by 2027.

“From the mid-2030s on, any additional aviation capacity for Sydney will be provided at the Western Sydney Airport.

“You can be confident there’s going to be a lot of traffic serving the business market there.”

Another comparison Fletcher makes is to Luton Airport to the north of London, for so long a base for the budget airline easyJet.

If Luton existed in Australia, it would be the third or fourth-biggest airport in the country.

“Some people have said to me, ‘Hang on, are you saying that Western Sydney Airport is a low-cost-carrier operation?’ [That’s] very much not the case,’’ he says.

“Over time, we’re very confident that there will be the full range of airlines there but [on] the particular issue of what will be there in the first 10 to 15 years — this airport will have a distinct competitive advantage in serving the people of western Sydney.

“Chinese airlines have said …. this is certainly of interest to them. They’re talking about wanting to get slots at Sydney Airport … it is clear the Chinese market is enormously important.

“The third aspect which can be important from the outset is freight,’’ he says. “Because it won’t have a curfew, it will have some advantages compared to Kingsford Smith.”

Earthworks start next year in flattening the hilly area set aside for a runway and, as soon as possible afterwards, the government will look to build a runway and terminal.

The issue of when rail will be constructed to the airport remains a matter of contention between the NSW and federal governments, but a north-south route looks most likely in the first instance, with a potential rail line connecting Narellan, in outer southwest Sydney, to St Marys, where passengers could change for Parramatta and the city.

“The commonwealth’s position is probably best articulated by the Prime Minister,” Fletcher says.

“He [Malcolm Turnbull] spoke about a scoping study, identifying what’s the right route, when should it be built, how much should it cost, how much should it be funded

“The Prime Minister’s instruction to the team was, ‘Can rail be built by the time the airport opens and if not, how soon afterwards?’”

Fletcher says of the airport’s size: “Initially, it’s order of magnitude around the size of Canberra. When you get up to the 10-million levels, you’re getting towards the size of Adelaide.”

Fletcher takes an unusually bipartisan approach to the airport, saying he gives credit to the Hawke Labor government which bought the land in the 1980s and successive NSW governments that refused to develop around the site, allowing the airport to be built.

Key to the success of the new airport, says the minister, himself a former Optus executive, is the appointment as chair of the WSA Co board of his former boss Paul O’Sullivan, the former chief executive of Optus.

Other directors include Christine Spring, who had worked on the management teams of airports at Melbourne, Auckland and Abu Dhabi. Another appointee is Fiona Balfour, a former chief information officer at both Qantas and Telstra.

“We wanted a board with experience of building an infrastructure business, building market share, competing against a well-established incumbent,” Fletcher says. “We’re designing an airport from scratch. It’s going to be very important to think through the technology aspect of this.”

He enthuses about the “scale of the opportunity here” to attract businesses, from agricultural to medical to defence industries, with US company Northrop Grumman recently committing to a $50 million facility nearby.

The project will begin as a public one funded by the federal government, but the airport will be sold in time. The reason it needs to be public, the minister says, is to manage “risks” such as the “flight-paths planning process”.

“We certainly expect in due course this airport will end up in private ownership.”