Sydney Airport Australia's worst again - ACCC

[markis10]

Sydney Airport has again achieved the lowest ranking of the country's four-biggest airports with passengers concerned about kerbside congestion at both its international and domestic terminals.
In its annual report on the state of the airports, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned that the country's four largest airports – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – will have to invest more if they are to resolve congestion, accommodate future passenger growth and improve service levels.
"It is likely that the current infrastructure at monitored airports will be under increasing pressure in future years given evidence of aeronautical and land-side congestion at some airports," ACCC chairman Rod Sims said.


Read more: Sydney Airport rated Australia's worst large airport

 

[dmitri]

Brisbane is just as bad as Sydney IMO. I fly in and out of both 8-16 times/month, SYD has a better QF domestic club.

 

[ts911993]

Brisbane is just as bad as Sydney IMO. I fly in and out of both 8-16 times/month, SYD has a better QF domestic QF club.

I was going to say the same thing. I find Brisbane hopeless - domestic or International.

whats best? lounges in Sydney are best i think, but for ease of use maybe Canberra!

 

[samh004]

The only bad thing I have to say about SYD international is dealing with JQ... everything else is always great

Domestically, it meets my needs.

 

[JohnK]

Macquarie!

Need I say more?

 

[Mogul]

TE=JohnK;1021995]Macquarie!

Need I say more?[/QUOTE]

Macquarie have nothing to do with Sydney Airport.

 

[JohnK]

Macquarie have nothing to do with Sydney Airport.

Have they sold it?

Did someone else not allow pickup from international arrivals? Did someone else charge for parking to pickup from international terminal from 1st minute in parking lot until recent changes?

 

[Quickstatus]

The worst part of SYD is the baggage claim area at SYD-Int. The early morning arrival session is the worst.

Queue for immigration - not too bad but its annoying when several counters are not opened. Smartgate does not improve your exit time unless you have no checked bags.

Queue to get bags - and fight to get past people in front of you to get to the carousel and apologise for hitting people with your bags.

Queue to get oversized bags - this is a big bottleneck. My longest wait for a skibag was 45 minutes AFTER I collected my last bag off the carousel. And it had priority tags. There was only one agent there and it is so inefficient.
The fellow takes one bag at a time from behind the screen and takes it out tothe waiting hordes.

Queue for quarantine

Queue for taxi - well whats another 20-30 minutes

Queue at Southern Cross Drive - not too bad. everything seems better compared to the mayhem at arrivals Syd Int.

Parking is expensive.

Express passes only gets you into a different lane at quarantine. So you only partially eliminate 1 out of 5 queues.

I have in my drawer 5 express passes which I did not use. Hoepfully I can use them when its really bad at SYD

 

[Mogul]

Have they sold it?

Did someone else not allow pickup from international arrivals? Did someone else charge for parking to pickup from international terminal from 1st minute in parking lot until recent changes?

They disposed of it earlier this year.

 

[JohnK]

They disposed of it earlier this year.

That is fine. They still created that mess.

 

[boomy]

I think SYD airport deserves it's low ranking. I don't judge an airport by it's lounges as most people who travel will never see the inside of a lounge.
The transfer between domestic and international is annoying (big advantage to MEL), long queues to get in and out (express pass helps), long queues for taxi, parking fees (do they have pre-payed option like in MEL?), congested international terminal.
My favourite airport is ADL, a friendly and convenient place where everything seem to work well.

 

[mannej]

I think SYD airport deserves it's low ranking. I don't judge an airport by it's lounges as most people who travel will never see the inside of a lounge.
The transfer between domestic and international is annoying (big advantage to MEL), long queues to get in and out (express pass helps), long queues for taxi, parking fees (do they have pre-payed option like in MEL?), congested international terminal.
My favourite airport is ADL, a friendly and convenient place where everything seem to work well.

Transfer between terminals - surely PER would be the worst?

 

[boomy]

Transfer between terminals - surely PER would be the worst?

Yes, PER is worse in this regard.

 

[JohnK]

The transfer between domestic and international is annoying (big advantage to MEL), long queues to get in and out (express pass helps), long queues for taxi, parking fees (do they have pre-payed option like in MEL?), congested international terminal.

Isn't transfer an issue in many airports? BNE? PER?

In SYD I do not encounter long queues at immigration although quarantine is a mess on arrival as I wait for golf clubs which take an eternity and the queue is long by then. I am sure you can prepay for your parking if you booked online.

 

[Hvr]

Why 'again'? Surely the correct word is 'still'?

 

[badseed]

I was glad that the lack of International gates at Melbourne got a mention. Every time I'm out there it seems like there are 2 or 3 flights waiting for their gate to become available.

I know it'd cost a lot of money to spend to fix a problem that only occurs for a period of around 4 hours a day, but it's not fun if you have to spend another 45 minutes parked on a taxiway after a 7 to 10 hour flight!

 

[dmitri]

Would any of these issues be rectified if the airports were government owned? I know that BAC seems to react to issues slowly in Brisbane.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

My favourite airport is ADL, a friendly and convenient place where everything seem to work well.

YUP - ADL and MEL just so easy - trsfr bw terminals right royal PITA - to be avoided at all cost.

 

[boomy]

Going through SYD int' today, I had to queue up 20 minutes for the TRS, deducted from my lounge time... Annoying.
They should have more staff there at busy times.

 

[kevrosmith]

Going through SYD int' today, I had to queue up 20 minutes for the TRS, deducted from my lounge time... Annoying.
They should have more staff there at busy times.

Seeing that function is provided by Government agencies, perhaps you could write to your local MP to suggest that?

Although I guess from their (the Government's) perspective it's a case of expending government income (via wages), the outcome of which is the reduction of more government income (GST tax revenue). With that in view, I'm possibly not surprised they aren't adequately staffing the function, possibly with a view to discourage it all the more.