Local at the controls of Western Sydney Airport

Western Sydney Airport will have one of its own as its inaugural chief executive.

Graham Millett, the inaugural CEO of Western Sydney Airport, at Badgerys Creek in western Sydney. Picture: John Feder.

Western Sydney Airport will have one of its own as its inaugural chief executive, with the federal government choosing Graham Millett, a Parramatta-raised former high-flying Qantas executive, after a global search lasting more than six months.

Mr Millett said leading Western Sydney Airport Co, which will build the city’s second airport, was his dream job. “Growing up in western Sydney I could not have envisaged that I would one day have such a unique opportunity, and it fills me with pride to ­(deliver) this incredible legacy project,” he said.

The appointment of Mr Millett appears to flag an acceleration for a project more than 50 years in the making.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher has confirmed earthworks on the airport will start “before the end of this year” under Mr Millett’s stewardship.

Mr Fletcher said yesterday that Mr Millett’s appointment was a “critical” development in the plan to transform the area around the new airport at Badgerys Creek into Sydney’s third city, along with the Sydney CBD and Parramatta, a plan first outlined by Greater ­Sydney Commission boss Lucy Turnbull.

“He’s going to be in charge of the critical asset that is the centre of Sydney’s third city,” Mr Fletcher said.

“The Western Sydney Airport will become the economic hub around which you will get commercial and residential development. It needs to work effect­ively as a business for the rest of the ­vision to be realised. We’ve now got a very experienced executive to take charge of that.”

The minister wants Mr Millett to run the airport through to its opening late in 2026. “He has taken the job with full knowledge of that date,” he said. “I certainly hope and expect that he is.”

Announcing the role to staff, Mr Millett said he looked forward “not only to building the airport, but operating it well into the ­future”.

Western Sydney Airport would be “the catalyst for turning greater western Sydney into Australia’s major centre of economic growth and job creation, and providing Australia’s premier passenger ­experience”, he said.

Mr Millett is understood to want Western Sydney Airport (WSA) to compete fiercely with Kingsford-Smith Airport.

“I see WSA as the future of ­aviation in Australia,” he said. “Without WSA, Sydney would not be able to meet future aviation ­demand.

“It’s the most significant infrastructure project in NSW for many decades and will bring real benefits closer to home for western Sydney residents.”

The airport will support 11,000 jobs during construction and 28,000 jobs in its first five years of operation. Mr Millett is believed to be ­expecting decisions to be made soon on rail connections to the site.

Aviation specialists point to his experience over nearly a decade overseeing $10 billion in assets in his roles as the head of Qantas’s property, procurement and fleet management divisions.

They say this will help him to negotiate the challenging tasks of building and operating Australia’s next major aviation hub.

Both the NSW and federal governments are investing several ­billion dollars on both new roads and significant upgrades to existing infrastructure to provide connectivity to the airport.

It was ­announced this week that Sydney’s new M12 motorway would directly connect the new airport with the M7 ­motorway.

The Weekend Australian understands more infrastructure announcements are expected in coming months.