Western Sydney Airport , officially named Western Sydney International (Nancy Bird Walton) Airport and also known as Badgerys Creek Airport, is an international airport in Luddenham and Badgerys Creek in New South Wales, Australia, approximately west of the Sydney central business district. Together with the development of surrounding areas, it is a key part of the Western Sydney Aerotropolis plan.
The airport commenced its first commercial cargo flights on 26 July 2026, with passenger operations scheduled to commence on 25 October 2026. Operated by WSA Co Limited, which is wholly owned by the Australian Government, the airport offers 24-hour and curfew-free operations and supplements Sydney Airport, which has reached capacity due to a legislated curfew and flight caps. It is the first major airport in Australia to not have an air traffic control tower on site.
The site of the airport was officially designated by the federal government on 15 April 2014, after decades of debate on the location of another airport within Greater Sydney. The airport will be constructed in stages. Stage 1 consists of a single runway and a single integrated international and domestic terminal, which is expected to handle up to 10million annual passengers. Construction of Stage 1 began on 24 September 2018, and major construction was completed in June 2025. Future stages of the airport are expected to begin after Stage 1, and will include an expanded or additional terminal and a second parallel runway. This will allow the airport to handle approximately 82 million annual passengers.
History
Operating since 1919, Sydney Airport is one of the world's oldest airports. Located only from the city centre, the airport site is now hemmed in on three sides by urban growth and on the fourth side by Botany Bay. The aforementioned reasons mean that expansion of Sydney Airport is highly difficult, as to expand the field, large areas of land need to be reclaimed from the sea or gathered through land expropriation and suburb demolitions, both of which are extremely costly solutions. There have thus been various proposals to build a second airport for Sydney since the 1960s.
The federal government announced in February 1986 that Badgerys Creek had been chosen as the location for a second major airport for Sydney. The federal government then undertook a series of land acquisitions for the site, primarily during the period 1986 to 1991, and spent approximately 170 million. The resulting site totalled .
However, following the purchase, the decision was made by the government that construction of a third runway at Sydney Airport was more appropriate, and all work on the site was halted.
Despite the expansion, concerns remained that Sydney Airport would run out of capacity by 2030, especially since the introduction of strict night flying restrictions in 1995. Planning for a second airport thus began again in earnest in 2008. A 3,200-page joint Federal/NSW study released in 2012 concluded that Badgerys Creek was "clearly the best site for a much-needed second airport for Sydney" and recommended that planning should start. On 15 April 2014, the federal government announced that Badgerys Creek would be the site of the Second Sydney Airport. In September 2018, construction works began at the Badgerys Creek Airport site.
On 4 March 2019, the federal government announced that the airport would be named Nancy Bird Walton International Airport in honour of the Australian aviator Nancy Bird Walton. New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian stated that the naming is an "absolutely inspiring choice" as the name for the new airport. Prime minister Scott Morrison stated that "we now recognise Australia's greatest female aviation pioneer" in the naming of the airport, and members of Walton's family stated that they were "extremely excited and thrilled, and it's just a huge honour" for their mother and grandmother.
On 10 December 2020, a light aircraft made an emergency landing on earthworks at the construction site, which was the airport's first arrival. The first official arrival at the airport took place on 2 October 2024, being a Piper PA-30 Twin Comanche registered as VH-8MN.
In July 2025, WSA Co proposed to have the airport precinct designated as a separate suburb known as Cabrogal, named after the Cabrogal people of the Dharug nation based in the Cumberland Plain area.
The airport opened for regular freight services on 27 July 2026, with initial operators Qantas Freight, Texel Air and Team Global Express. Regularly scheduled passenger services will follow from 25 October 2026, the first domestic flight to depart the airport for Gold Coast at 11am operated by Jetstar. Air New Zealand is scheduled to commence the first international services to the airport from Auckland on 26 October 2026
Facilities
Runway
Runway 05/23 is the main and only runway of the airport, running northeast-southwest with a paved length of and Code F categorisation, capable of handling the largest aircraft such as Boeing 747 and Airbus A380. Reciprocal runway operations (taking off and landing from the same direction) are preferred to/from the southwest to minimise noise.The Hon Catherine King MP
MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday 4 June 2025
Progressing the preliminary airspace and flight paths for Western Sydney's new airport
https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/c-king/media-release/progressing-preliminary-airspace-and-flight-paths-western-sydneys-new-airport
Digital remote air traffic control tower The airport is the first in Australia to open without a traditional control tower, instead equipped with a remote digital air traffic control tower. The remote tower consists of 20 cameras located atop a mast, streaming video back to controllers located in a data centre away at Eastern Creek. The quality and safety of the tower has been criticised by the Sydney Morning Herald.
Passenger terminal The airport's domestic and passenger terminals are combined under one roof, featuring 14 gates with 13 aerobridges and 6 remote stands. Several gates are deployable as 'swing gates', able to be set for either domestic or international flights. The gates are capable of handling all sizes of passenger aircraft including the Airbus A380. The arrivals hall features 40 self service check in kiosks and 34 bag drop kiosks, designed to reduce queuing and wait times as they can be used by any passenger with any airline. The long automated baggage handling system moves at and can process 2,000 bags per hour. The terminals design draws inspiration from the surrounding bush landscape and Aboriginal Dharug country, such as extensive use of sandstone.
Cargo precinct The airport's cargo precinct includes airfreight terminals operated by Qantas Freight and Menzies Aviation, with stands capable of holding up to eight wide body aircraft at once designed to handle heavy cargo, e-commerce and time sensitive freight such as pharmaceuticals and perishable food products. The terminals have an initial capacity to move over 220,000 tonnes of cargo per year. Plans to expand the precinct include a cargo facility operated by dnata.
Geography
The airport is situated west of the Sydney CBD and west of Sydney Airport. The site lies south of the City of Penrith CBD and approximately north of the City of Campbelltown CBD. The Township of Luddenham is located adjacent to the airport, from the runway. The airport stands within of the World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains National Park, sparking serious concerns about declared wilderness, wild rivers, amenities, World Heritage status, and the City of Blue Mountains economy. The site is within the City of Liverpool local government area and consists of approximately of Commonwealth land that was acquired between 1986 and 1991.
Legislation The enables the development and use of an airport, known as Sydney West Airport. The Airport Plan released by the Commonwealth Government in December 2016 notes that the airport is referred to in the Act as Sydney West Airport is commonly known as Western Sydney Airport.
Economy
The Federal Government claimed the initial construction phase is expected to generate around 4,000 jobs, and the airport development is expected to create 35,000 jobs by 2035, increasing to 60,000 jobs over time. Prime Minister Scott Morrison claimed that the airport would "create 11,000 jobs during construction" and "28,000 within its first 5 years". However, such claims were contradicted by the 2017 labour market analysis commissioned by the Government. The analysis states that the airport is predicted to directly support 3,231 jobs during construction over eight years, 13,169 from the airport combined with a business park during the first five years of operation, and 24,046 from the combined airport and business park over the following ten years.
Western Sydney Airport will be the linchpin of Aerotropolis Western Sydney, a rezoning and development plan to be applied to the lands around the airport. This includes the development of what was formerly known as the Western Parkland City, which in 2023 was gazetted as the new city of Bradfield. The development aims to become a high-skilled jobs hub for the aerospace, defense, manufacturing, health care, freight, agribusiness, education and research sectors.
Flight paths
On 19 October 2015, the draft environmental impact statement (EIS) was released by the Turnbull government. This statement outlined the proposed flight paths for Western Sydney Airport from the initial opening in the mid-2020s and flight paths for an international expansion. The draft EIS showed incoming flights merging approximately over the Blue Mountains town of Blaxland which already lies at an altitude of . Unlike Sydney airport, no 'flight sharing' was proposed to reduce noise impacts on individual suburbs. Instead, flight paths followed a single loop turning either southwest or continuing southeast after the Blaxland merge point, then either northeast or southwest towards Badgerys Creek. The height started at above ground level over Blaxland, with the southwest path descending over the World Heritage-listed national park, declared wilderness, declared wild rivers, and Warragamba Dam, until reaching , over the township of and descending towards the airport over , , and before landing. The southeast path descended over , , , , and , reaching over then over the Twin Creeks and Sydney Science Park housing estates before landing. Assessment of noise impacts was based solely on these flight paths.
After an extensive community backlash and as a measure to retain her seat of Macquarie, Liberal Louise Markus and the Coalition government announced a scrapping of the Blaxland merge point. The final EIS, released on 15 September 2016, revealed that the flight paths, although remaining the same, were marked as 'indicative only'. A consistent message portrayed to the public since then is that the flight paths are unknown, will not be released, noise impacts will not be assessed, nor community consultation undertaken until after construction of the airport.http://westernsydneyairport.gov.au/resources/eis/files/WSA-EIS-Volume-2a-Stage-1-Development.pdf Markus lost her seat at that election, with a swing against her of 9.2 percent.
In June 2023, the proposed flight paths were released with an interactive online map displaying the predicted noise impacts. Noise insulation grants will be available for some residents.
On 9 July 2026, the updated airspace changes around the Sydney Basin to support the operation of Western Sydney Airport came into effect.
The Sydney Airport Curfew Act 1995 specifies that the exemption that allows BAe-146 freight aircraft to operate at Sydney Airport during its curfew period will cease when Western Sydney Airport is able to be used for night aircraft movements.
Construction