Western Sydney Airport (WSI) Discussion

[clifford]

They are there to balance competition

Isn't that an oxymoron? And as for the government, this just looks like another failed referendum to me (although on a much smaller scale).

 

[dajop]

TBH, mountain and molehole comes to mind. People think international competition is the problem? When you can regularly find fares from Melbourne to Singapore for less than you can from Melbourne to Sydney then I don’t think competition on international routes is quite the political problem relating to airfares ….

But then again I guess the problem isn't economy fares, it's business class. At the end of the day in this particular echo chamber, more competition = more Q suites on QR available for redemption? So it really becomes a question of whether, if they had less constrained capacity, would QR up their services to Australia using WSI?

 

[elanshin]

The narrative that has somehow become the mainstream understanding is that international fares are expensive because QF has a monopolistic grasp, yet this is far from the truth. There's a very competitive pricing across a lot of airlines. Whether you want to fly them or not is a different story.

Either way the government already cast political dice for WSI with the promise of a rail extension. I don't think the major Sydney airport designation will really change much - doubt the average layman would even understand what that even means.

After all, there is only a very small subset of carriers this would affect as the rest have open skies agreement with us.

 

[Melburnian1]

By that logic why have Air Services Agreements at all? Operate like Africa / South America where 5th freedom / cabotage (8th) is the norm, no restrictions, the more competition the better.

The capacity restrictions in these agreements have nothing to do with airport slot availability, they are not there to preserve slots at the major airports. They are there to balance competition, and the lack of restrictions in regional airports (in many agreements, but not all) are to encourage new services to these airports which can do with the extra freight & tourism.

As above, nothing stopping them right now for updating individual agreements to give extra capacity to WSI. No need to make it carte blanche for all airlines.

"Balancing competition" sounds like socialism.

The AFL is expert at this.

Consumers (in this case travellers) would benefit from less regulation, not 'updating individual agreements'.

If SQ wanted to operate from SYD or the yet to open WS airport to MEL or BNE and carry domestic passengers, why not?

 

[jase05]

If SQ wanted to operate from SYD or the yet to open WS airport to MEL or BNE and carry domestic passengers, why not?

Because the very average airline that is Qantas would fold within 2 years.
There would just be too many Australian jobs at stake I’d imagine

 

[SYD]

Because the very average airline that is Qantas would fold within 2 years.
There would just be too many Australian jobs at stake I’d imagine

TBH, the QF domestic offer is far superior to SQs domestic service…

But seriously, and staying OT, there are very few countries that are like for like domestic market. The USA and Canada are obvious ones and they’re not good benchmarks.

 

[moa999]

that international fares are expensive because QF has a monopolistic grasp, ye

Agreed.
You can somewhat argue that domestically.. but rightly domestic carriage is restricted to protect local jobs, otherwise you end up with the Australian shipping industry (ie. Virtually non-existent).

But Qantas Group has a lot more competition internationally.

 

[HS-TQE]

Because the very average airline that is Qantas would fold within 2 years.
There would just be too many Australian jobs at stake I’d imagine

Eh, if SQ couldn't make their 3 previous attempts at the Australian domestic market work (Air New Zealand/Ansett Australia, Tiger Airways, Virgin Australia 1.0), there's probably very little to zero chance of them making any 4th attempt (big or small) work.

Considering the AFR 'reports' that SQ straight up declined an approach from Bain Capital for a stake in VA 2.0 says it all for SQ's current priorities, the Australian Domestic market isn't really high in priority for them after losing billions on their previous three attempts.

 

[jase05]

Eh, if SQ couldn't make their 3 previous attempts at the Australian domestic market work (Air New Zealand/Ansett Australia, Tiger Airways, Virgin Australia 1.0), there's probably very little to zero chance of them making any 4th attempt (big or small) work.

Considering the AFR 'reports' that SQ straight up declined an approach from Bain Capital for a stake in VA 2.0 says it all for SQ's current priorities, the Australian Domestic market isn't really high in priority for them after losing billions on their previous three attempts.

I was alluding more to general competition than just SQ.
These rules are in place to protect Australian jobs

 

[clifford]

These rules are in place to protect Australian jobs

More like Australian board members than the jobs of coal face workers. Doesn't an airline have form in this area?

 

[AIRwin]

WSIculpture:

Taller than an A380, this mammoth sculpture will welcome you to Sydney’s new airport

The globe-like structure will tower 30 metres when it is finished, making it visible to passengers when the first flights start late next year.

www.smh.com.au

 

[SYD]

WSIculpture:

Taller than an A380, this mammoth sculpture will welcome you to Sydney’s new airport

The globe-like structure will tower 30 metres when it is finished, making it visible to passengers when the first flights start late next year.

www.smh.com.au

Hmm, a flightless bird…. Hopefully not a bad omen…

 

[AIRwin]

Hopefully not a bad omen…

Just like the sculpture of Icarus outside MEL T2

 

[moa999]

Finalised design of WSI Metro Station.

It's mostly underground of course, so a relatively simple structure leading to the canopies already constructed by the airport.



Other designs on the line can be found here

Designs confirmed for six new Airport metro stations | Sydney Metro

Work to construct six new metro stations for Sydney Metro – Western Sydney Airport is in full swing and designs for each station are now finalised.

www.sydneymetro.info

 

[RooFlyer]

It's mostly underground of course, so a relatively simple structure leading to the canopies already constructed by the airport.

Looking at the gallery, I think they can be called 'utilitarian' or 'functional'.

 

[dairyfloss]

There’s been an update from QF in relation to WSI, firming up a small number of QF aircraft (5 of them) for domestic services, most likely on the golden triangle. E190s are proposed, with A220s possibly in the mix as well.

More here, courtesy of ET: https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/qantas-western-sydney-airport-wsi

Cheers,
Matt.

 

[SYD]

Saw this reported in multiple places. Indian airlines eyeing off WSI.

https://www.executivetraveller.com/news/air-india-indigo-western-sydney-airport

 

[kamchatsky]

The flight path for WSI is now confirmed:

Flight path changes for Western Sydney Airport revealed

Sydney’s newest airport is getting ready to take off as it marks a major milestone and reveals changes to flight paths.

www.smh.com.au

 

[SYD]

The flight path for WSI is now confirmed:

Flight path changes for Western Sydney Airport revealed

Sydney’s newest airport is getting ready to take off as it marks a major milestone and reveals changes to flight paths.

www.smh.com.au

That’s just the “night” ops.

Daytime will be a spaghetti western sharing the noise love.

 

[jpp42]

Drove past WSI and was surprised on how complete it looks. What's the major infrastructure that's left to do - just the terminal? Are testing flights already starting? I imagine the new "tower-less" ATC system will need some amount of testing.