Western Sydney International (Nancy-Bird Walton) Airport will welcome its first passengers on 25 October 2026, with freight operations commencing earlier on 26 July, the federal government has confirmed.
The airport, Australia's first new major airport in decades, will operate curfew-free around the clock and is expected to serve up to 10 million passengers annually with scalable capacity for future growth.
Jetstar will operate the airport's first commercial passenger flight, an Airbus A320 service to the Gold Coast departing at 11am on 25 October. From launch, Jetstar will operate up to 14 weekly flights to Melbourne, four to the Gold Coast and three to Brisbane. Qantas will commence services from 28 March 2027, operating four weekly QantasLink Embraer E190 flights each to Brisbane and Melbourne.
Qantas Freight will begin regular flights the evening after freight operations open on 26 July. Air New Zealand will commence flights to Auckland on 26 October, followed by Singapore Airlines with daily flights to Changi from 23 November.
From 1 November 2026, WSI is expected to be gazetted for night aircraft movements under the Sydney Airport Curfew Act 1995, ending currently permitted overnight freight flights at Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport, with exceptions for emergencies or special dispensation.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the airport had been 15 years in planning. 'In 2011, I commissioned a joint study with the NSW Government into how we'd deliver a second airport,' he said. 'I said at the time, it wasn't a matter of if Sydney needed a new airport, but when.'
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said passenger flights were now just 137 days away, while the new terminal, cargo and business precincts would make WSI a centre for both travel and jobs in the region.
The project has created more than 12,800 jobs, around half going to local workers, with more than $500 million flowing to over 360 Western Sydney businesses during construction.