Western Sydney Airport (WSI) Discussion

Airlines have known for years that this would be the case
It does make one wonder who is the one more concerned about this law - the airport or the airlines? It would be an interesting look for the airlines to push for an extension of the law, as then any argument for wanting and using the new airport falls over.
 
It does make one wonder who is the one more concerned about this law - the airport or the airlines? It would be an interesting look for the airlines to push for an extension of the law, as then any argument for wanting and using the new airport falls over.
Sydney airport and the airlines will be the ones wanting the law changed (ie to allow continuation of the curfew-breaking).

Tough. As you noted, Sydney Airport had the first right to operate the new airport and turned it down.
 
I seen to recall I read somewhere recently (unless I was dreaming) SIA have announced daily flights to WSI when it is operational to kick off international connections and QF/JQ have committed a sub fleet to operate domestically from there - so it wont be just a freight airfield.
 
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I seen to recall I read somewhere recently (unless I was dreaming) SIA have announced daily flights to WSI when it is operational to kick off international connections and QF/HQ have committed a sub fleet to operate domestically from there - so it wont be just a freight airfield.
Yes. SQ and JQ so far but freight will be there on day 1!
 
We are just hoping Day 1 comes a little earlier. Can’t wait
TBH, I don’t understand the “delay” (as mentioned a while ago). The physical works are basically complete. Yes, certification takes time but still saying opening in ~2yrs. What the actual…is going on?

The contract for the “Digital” tower was only signed a few months ago. First of its type in Oz. What could possibly go wrong? Sadly, a lot…
 
TBH, I don’t understand the “delay” (as mentioned a while ago). The physical works are basically complete. Yes, certification takes time but still saying opening in ~2yrs. What the actual…is going on?

The contract for the “Digital” tower was only signed a few months ago. First of its type in Oz. What could possibly go wrong? Sadly, a lot…
Airport commissioning is very very complex, and budle that with all the regulatory requirements. Honestly ine year from end of physical works seems quick if anything.

What may happen is thay they do a "soft opening" of sorts where some aspects of the airport begin operating before others, for example they may start freight operations first, before then allowing passenger flights.
 
physical works are basically complete
External works (IE. Waterproof or lockup stage in a house build are complete). Still a lot of internal work to go.

And then you've got to test systems - baggage, security, fire suppression (where Berlin had 10yr issues), tower integration etc.

Plus you kind of need the access roads and railway complete as well
 
External works (IE. Waterproof or lockup stage in a house build are complete). Still a lot of internal work to go.
Most of that is done. Many of news reports of updates on progress say things like “it looks like passengers could arrive tomorrow”.
And then you've got to test systems - baggage, security, fire suppression (where Berlin had 10yr issues), tower integration etc.
Yes, discussed previously. 2 yrs is still a long time. Unless the freight ops start sooner?

BER was literally an unmitigated disaster riddled with corruption, kickbacks etc. They pondered knocking it down and rebuilding…

Plus you kind of need the access roads and railway complete as well
Access roads are built (needed for construction). They’ll tart them up and other roads to improve access in due course.

The metro isn’t needed for freight but yes, I nice to have when passenger ops commence.
 
That was/is still the plan
In terms of taking off and landing any aircraft, I doubt there's much difference in the commissioning of freight vs passenger flights. I assume the passenger terminal and associated systems must be a little more complicated than freight operations.
 
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But even that has been quoted as ~2yrs post those first test flights back in October.
There's probably testing for just about everything and there's only so many tests you can do a day- evacuation drills, fire drills, incident response drills with various outside services, IT testing, baggage system testing etc.

And not to mention if any of them goes wrong or a failure point is identified, they time need to implement a fix and retest.

This is also a political centre piece, so all the politicians would want the optics of launch day to look good.
In terms of taking off and landing any aircraft, I doubt there's much difference in the commissioning of freight vs passenger flights. I assume the passenger terminal and associated systems must be a little more complicated than freight operations.
Depends on how state of the art freight system they want to build. If they want a highly automated freight system that is probably more complex than PAX systems as ultimately we as humans are a lot more adaptable than machines.
 

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