Western Sydney Airport (WSI) Discussion

mrsterryn said:
Will wsi take the delayed flights out of Curfew time from mascot if needed ?
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It is a real risk especially for aircraaft types that will be supported at WSI. But id rather stay as my departure point and fly next day than end up in same state but so far from actual home in a fight for a uber/taxi (if you can even get one so far from city in wee hours) that will cost more than a MEL-SYD flight and more than a night at the Ibis at MEL.

If they tell passengers before departure about the diversion, id be requesting to be moved to a morning flight. Better get good night sleep at hotel and fly next day than trying to get home from WSI in wee hours and getting no sleep.
 
mrsterryn said:
Will wsi take the delayed flights out of Curfew time from mascot if needed ?
Click to expand...
Given the disruption to all manor of things (pax, crew, freight, onward movements for the frame), I'd expect if they knew this ahead of departure from the point of origin that they wouldn't even depart. They may well divert though if en route and are held due to weather or other events, assuming it's closer to continue to WSI then to return to the point of origin. We've probably got some planners on here who would know the actual protocols?
 
The reality is that there will be a train to the airport fairly shortly after the airport opens (and certainly faster than the 80 years it took SYD to get one), it's just that it won't be "one seat" to the CBD. My feeling is that'll be fine, it's not "one seat" to the CBD in Singapore either and that's a very good service, even though it isn't express to the city. As long as the design at St Mary's station is good to allow easy transfers with luggage, and the timetables are adjusted to facilitate easy connections I reckon it's going to be a hell of a lot better than most secondary airports around the world start off with.

And of course, as others have pointed out, it's likely the bulk of the passengers won't be going to and from the CBD anyway. They'll have chosen to fly to/from WSI specifically because it's convenient for them (either because of location or cheaper, easier long term parking).

Only time will tell and it'll definitely be a few years before we know how successful the airport is. But I get the distinct feeling that many on this thread will be declaring it a failure and a white elephant simply because it won't be operating at maximum capacity by day 2. God forbid we build anything in this country with room for future growth!
 
AuSammy said:
Most government projects go through a theoretical ROI process to decide where to spend the tax payers dollars. For an airport that won’t have oodles of passengers for maybe a decade ot two, it wouldn’t measure up when compared to other priorities. It wasn’t until 2000 that SYD got a rail link despite being at the time the busiest airport in the country.
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Yup, airport wouldn't have got off the ground if they priced in a train from day one....
 
Here's a question - will airlines start selling "connecting flights" that fly into one airport and out of the other?

Seems nuts, but it happens in Tokyo, with some major carriers selling connecting flights involving the traveller getting themselves between Haneda and Narita. Even in Japan with very good ground transport, this is a pain. I think the official MCT for these itineraries is something like 3h30

Now imagine a foreign traveller flying in from say Europe, with an onward connection to Pacific islands or something, having to change airports at Sydney peak hour!
 
offshore171 said:
Here's a question - will airlines start selling "connecting flights" that fly into one airport and out of the other?

Seems nuts, but it happens in Tokyo, with some major carriers selling connecting flights involving the traveller getting themselves between Haneda and Narita. Even in Japan with very good ground transport, this is a pain. I think the official MCT for these itineraries is something like 3h30

Now imagine a foreign traveller flying in from say Europe, with an onward connection to Pacific islands or something, having to change airports at Sydney peak hour!
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having just flown into HND and out of NRT I didn't find an issue at all... there's buses running every 30 mins or so that go literally terminal door to terminal door... takes about 1 hour... and costs $33 but this is Japan where public transport is super efficient
 
offshore171 said:
Here's a question - will airlines start selling "connecting flights" that fly into one airport and out of the other?

Seems nuts, but it happens in Tokyo, with some major carriers selling connecting flights involving the traveller getting themselves between Haneda and Narita. Even in Japan with very good ground transport, this is a pain. I think the official MCT for these itineraries is something like 3h30

Now imagine a foreign traveller flying in from say Europe, with an onward connection to Pacific islands or something, having to change airports at Sydney peak hour!
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Like this....?
abcnews.com

Viral TikTok puts spotlight on airline service that offers bus ride instead of flight

An American Airlines passenger said in a now-viral TikTok video that she was shocked when she realized she would be taking a bus rather than a plane to her destination.
abcnews.com abcnews.com
 
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HS-TQE said:
Fiji Airways has shown interest in NAN-WSI under newly minted CEO Paul Scurrah (a former VA 1.0 CEO). No decisions to be made yet, but interest also extends to other ports (i.e PER? AVV? MCY?)

karryon.com.au

FTE 2026: Fiji Airways CEO on Western Sydney Airport, higher fares, ‘latent demand’ & his ‘clear mission’

Five months after taking on the role of CEO, Paul Scurrah says the next chapter for Fiji Airways is less about maintaining momentum and more about sharpening its strategy.
karryon.com.au
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WSI seems natural given that half of Fiji-born population in Australia live in Sydney, and the top 10 suburbs they reside in are all close to WSI too.

I can see them running a 1am departure to arrive at about 6am to connect with a bank of domestic and Pacific Islands flights from NAN, but it won’t do much for eastbound international connecting traffic to North America. Then again Brisbane has one flight which does that and it’s got 1/3rd of the Fijian population of Sydney, so perhaps that might work for WSI?
 
kookaburra75 said:
There's also the Canberra market. A lot of us the Murrays bus to get to Sydney International and back, to avoid paying the "Canberra Tax" on CBR-SYD flights and to avoid delays with fog or cancelled flights (which happens all too often). If Murrays set up a similar service to WSI, then that would work for us. The daytime flight would be a bonus.
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I'm not sure they'd want to do that. They stop at SYD because it is on the way to Sydney Central. WSI would be too far out of the way.
The bus companies used to run services from Canberra to Sydney Central via Paramatta, but they stopped that about 15 years ago.
Greyhound also cut back their Canberra runs at some point. They used to have 2 daily to Melbourne and 5 or 6 daily to Sydney. Now it's just 1 daily to both.
 
Thrice weekly seems pretty half-assed, but I suppose it fits with Air New Zealand's half-assed approach to running an airline. Launching after school and public holidays too, which is odd.

I suppose the Fri-Mon return allows a long weekend in AKL, but are there going to be many takers from that catchment?

Barely 20 bucks cheaper outbound, a few pennies cheaper inbound compared to NZ's SYD flights, and not significantly cheaper than QF return for the same dates in the inaugural week... so, why bother?

I don't think AKL is a huge market for Western Sydney, but it's surprising the cheapskates couldn't even be bothered to launch the route with special fares to get some attention and boost early loads.
 
New Zealand’s national carrier is also allowing passengers with existing bookings from/to Sydney Kingsford Smith (SYD) ticketed on or before Thursday, 2 April, to change their travel to a WSI service “without penalty, fare difference within the same cabin or tax difference”.

Air New Zealand will allow premium cabin customers booked from Sydney to switch to WSI by rebooking new tickets and refunding originals. Refunds require endorsement, noting the WSI launch.
 
Harrison_133 said:
Air New Zealand have put Western Sydney flights on sale.

Commences 26 October 2026.

0750 arrival, 0900 departure.

Appears to be 3x weekly to begin with (Mon/Wed/Fri).
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No Business Class on those flights?
 

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