Source : Perth Now news
Touchdown. The first international flight has touched down at Western Sydney International (WSI) Airport, with the arrival of New Zealand Airways flight NZ165 from Aukland dropping its wheels onto the tarmac just before 7.45am on Monday morning.
That same aircraft will also make the first international flight to depart the new airport when it returns to Auckland on Monday.
WSI CEO Simon Hickey said there was an “atmosphere of joy” at the airport while speaking on ABC News Breakfast.
“This is something we’ve been building up to … we’re starting small and continuing to build,” Mr Hickey said.
“In just over a year there will be 250 destinations from Western Sydney Airport. Others will come and get in on the fun, but what’s going to drive that is people from Western Sydney buying tickets and getting on planes.
Mr Hickey said the airport had been designed to grow rapidly, and is expected to funnel as many as 10 million passengers a year by the mid-2030s.
“This is infrastructure, so we look to the future. The airport we’ve built right now is about the size of Adelaide Airport, which means it can handle 10 million passengers a year,” he said.
“We’ll continue to grow from there. This airport is for the next century as well, and we can continue to grow into the coming years. We’re ready to grow with that demand across Sydney and Australia.”
The first domestic Jet Star flights both in and out of Western Sydney Airport are also scheduled for Monday morning.
It follows the first domestic flights to take off the new airport on Sunday, which marked the official opening on Sydney’s second major airport.
More to come
