Markets 
Sydney’s second airport sometimes seemed like a cargo cult trapped in a never-ending political soap opera, but that ended late on Monday night when a Qantas freighter made the first commercial cargo flight from the new $6 billion Western Sydney Airport at Badgerys Creek.
The start of cargo flights comes three months before the curfew-free airport opens to passengers. Jetstar will become the first airline to fly out on October 25, followed by Air New Zealand a day later. Singapore Airlines lands on November 23, while Qantas’s domestic flights are scheduled to begin on March 28. Menzies Aviation, Dubai-owned dnata, charter company Texel Air and Saudia Cargo will also use the new facility.
In 1962, Kingsford Smith Airport was running out of room and a second airport was mooted in state parliament. It ran foul of local farmers’ objections, but the idea had taken wings. Two years later, the State Planning Authority determined a no-development zone around Badgerys Creek, and in 1971 a joint Commonwealth/state committee investigated the potential of Gosford and Richmond.
Then in 1989 Bob Hawke named Badgerys Creek. Seven years on John Howard supported Holsworthy, before shelving any decision while a fast train project was researched.
By 2003, the Coalition had decided Kingsford Smith could cope. Four years later the Rudd government decided it could not and commissioned another study. In 2012 then-transport minister Anthony Albanese released a report that examined 34 potential airport sites and named Badgerys Creek the best option.
While all this was going on, state, territory governments and local councils kept trying to block the site being used until April 2014, when Tony Abbott ended years of Liberal ambivalence and announced Badgerys Creek would be the site of Sydney’s new airport.
His successor, Malcolm Turnbull, decided against offering Sydney Airport Corporation Limited a subsidy to take on the new project and established the government-owned Western Sydney Airport Corporation to build and operate the new Western Sydney airport, effectively breaking the Kingsford Smith owner’s monopoly on big airport business.
A decade on, the benefits of competition slowly emerged when SACL announced a $200 million upgrade of its existing T2 terminal at Kingsford Smith, the first renovation in more than 30 years at Australia’s busiest domestic terminal.
Of course, such a huge infrastructure investment was not without scandal.
In 2022, the Australian National Audit Office found the federal government bought land from the Leppington Pastoral Company family trust run by billionaire brothers Tony and Ron Perich for almost $30 million, 10 times its market value.
But those days are over. The economic potential of our newest airport will be profound. It will attract businesses, generate jobs and boost competition and choice, and provide more domestic and international flights.
There are key milestones in the life of our city that have altered the way we live, such as the opening of the Harbour Bridge and, more recently, the Metro. Last night’s first plane out of Western Sydney Airport is another such moment.
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