Our regular feature, brought to you in association with Strange Nature Gin from New Zealand, celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.
AUSTRALIA. Our latest selection of images comes from Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport, after we paid a visit to the site of Australia’s newest gateway last week in the company of General Manager Retail Glyn Williams and colleagues on the commercial team.
Western Sydney International represents the next great landmark for Australian aviation – it will be the first greenfield airport to open in the country for over 40 years when operations begin in late 2026.
Western Sydney International management has pledged an airport experience “unlike any other in Australia” as it moves towards opening. As its website notes, it will be “seamless and sustainable, intuitive and exciting” and crucially “always open for international and domestic travel – along with air cargo flights”. That’s a reference to its 24-hours-a-day services, which contrasts with some other major international airports in Australia that operate with curfew limits.
In a signal of its faith in the new location, Qantas signed up in mid-2023 as the first airline partner, carrying an anticipated 4 million passengers and 25,000 flights a year from the beginning.
The airport, management has said, will reflect the First Nations heritage of the area, and will also lead on sustainability, not just in design, construction and operations, but in community impact too.
It’s an exciting time to visit, with major building work on the airport terminal and runway mostly complete – the many cranes that have long dominated the landscape are about to exit the stage – and as plans for commercial leasing take shape. More on those plans will follow.
On our visit we saw up close just how the space will come together in partnership with concessionaires – amid already intense interest since an early Registrations of Interest process was announced in February last year – and heard about how Western Sydney International will become a major driver of the regional economy.
A recent National Australia Bank report showed that Greater Western Sydney is set to grow by more than +25% to about 3.2 million people in the next decade, while over the next two decades, the region will absorb two-thirds of Sydney’s population growth.
A drive from the city out to Western Sydney International underlines this progress, with new roads, motorway ramps and land developments aplenty, especially as you draw closer to the airport itself. A multi-billion-dollar Metro link to the city is among the biggest and most high-profile projects.
Even before opening, the long-term ambition for the airport is lofty. Initial capacity will be for over 10 million passengers a year, but the ambition is to hit 80 million in the next 40 years – as large as London Heathrow today – and to become Sydney’s largest airport and its principal international gateway.
We’ll bring you more on this exciting new addition to Australia’s airport and travel retail sector soon. ✈
